American Lives
Tell Your Story
Every morning the Medicare Rights Center (MRC) hotline staff and volunteers pick up their phones and listen to the heartbreaking life stories of men and women neglected by the health care system.
Callers may differ in age, background and personal struggles, but they are all linked by one common thread: pain and suffering stemming from the failure of our health care system to meet their needs. The goal of MRC’s American Lives project is to reveal the physical, financial and emotional toll health care system failures take on older and disabled men and women.
The current debate about the future of Medicare is dominated by numbers and abstract statistics that do nothing to convey the heart-wrenching reality of people's daily struggle to access health care services.
While lack of prescription drug coverage has been in the news, most Americans have little understanding of what it means to go through their day with throbbing pain because they can't afford the analgesic their doctor prescribed. Few can comprehend the anguish of having to choose between buying medicine or food.
In order to gain political support and effect necessary changes, it is vital for legislators and the public to see and feel the plight of people battling to get the health care they need.
By participating in this project, you can help expose the suffering created by the failings of our health care system. You can become a part of our effort to make these powerful stories reverberate at the local, state and national levels.
We would like to hear from you. If you would like to tell your story to the Medicare Rights Center, please fill out the following information below. Medicare Rights Center may wish to share your story with the public, press or policy makers. We will contact you to get permission from you before sharing your story.
Thank you.