Kim Stubblefield, former high school cheerleader who worked nearly two decades at Union Hospital filing medical records, had it all. Marriage, family, work and her health. She is now unemployed, uninsured and essentially homeless. What happened? First a divorce, and then a throat cancer diagnosis. She lost her job, which led to her losing her health insurance. She has seizures, and a mild stroke has left her slightly paralyzed in her left arm and leg. In the news story The Southern Illinoisan has featured about her, by her own admission, is a person who has run out of options and is quickly running out of hope. In a series of bureaucratic rejections few of us would understand, Social Security disability won't help her, the Department of Public Aid won't help her, and she has been told she doesn't qualify for Medicaid.

"I’ve always worked, always contributed to what I would call the system," Stubblefield said. "But, I don’t understand how I can just keep getting turned down and keep getting turned down over and over again. All I’m trying to do is stay alive, so it goes far beyond frustrating. I just don’t understand how the system works." If this were an isolated incident, it would be disturbing enough to shame us as a nation, but this is happening to people all over the country. There are 45 million uninsured people in this country.

Jim Muir, columnist for The Southern Illinoisan, writes in an Op-Ed piece, We've failed our moral test, "On the state level we can spend $9 million to elect an Illinois Supreme Court justice and pay do-nothing, double-dipping politicians a six-figure retirement, but a dying woman can't get medical help. On a national level we can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a bridge in Alaska that 50 people per day use and a zillion dollars on a war in Iraq - but a cancer-stricken woman can't afford to go to the doctor. I don't care what your political party affiliation is -- there is something tragically wrong with that picture." Indeed.