Healthcare summit: Anecdotes rule the day

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Anecdotes have ruled the day.

President Obama told of his time at the hospital waiting for daughter Sasha to recover from meningitis and of his mother, who fought with her insurance company in the midst of her battle with cancer.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) read a letter from a constituent. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told a couple: one about a small business facing a 67% increase in its premiums next year, another about a constituent who can’t afford the removal of a tumor.

Republican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. of Louisiana said his arthritis had once disqualified him for insurance.

And Rep. Louis M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) told of a constituent who couldn’t afford dentures.

‘She wore her dead sister’s teeth,’ Slaughter said, ‘which, of course, were uncomfortable and did not fit.’

-- Kim Geiger