What costly care cost them

RALEIGH -- Leslie Boyd said her son died because he couldn't afford a colonoscopy.

Thursday night, she clutched a framed photo of Mike from behind the lectern at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and showed an audience of about 100 people his face.

The occasion was an interfaith memorial service for people who have suffered or died from lack of affordable health care. Organized by the N.C. Council of Churches, the service was intended to draw people of faith to action as Congress wrestles with a bill to remake the health-care system. The council is a coalition of 16 Christian denominations that work on social justice issues.

Increasingly, such memorials are being held across the country as clergy of all faiths unite to express their growing conviction that extending health care to all is a human right and a sacred obligation.

More than 30 clergy, including prominent members of Raleigh's Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim congregations, sponsored the memorial, and at least half attended the service. One woman told how her dialysis treatment forced her to give up her job, and by extension her insurance. Another said prayer is the only insurance she can afford.

But Boyd, who lives in Candler near Asheville, gave a public face to the grim reality that Americans die unnecessarily because of lack of coverage. Her son Mike Danforth died April 1, 2008, at the age of 33. He had been a student at Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah when his health began to decline. But like many older students, he opted out of health insurance because he couldn't afford it.

When his doctor told him he needed a colonoscopy, he postponed a procedure that typically costs about $3,000 without insurance.

By the time he finally did get a physician to probe the lining of his large intestine, cancer had ravaged his colon.

Fighting back tears, Boyd blamed the health-care system.

"To them, he was worthless," she said. "To me, he was worth everything."

Steve Taylor of Raleigh choked back tears as he told how his parents lost their home and had to file for bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills.

Mack and Susan Taylor of Macon, Ga., are both entitled to Medicare, but a series of health problems including his heart condition and her brain aneurism led to hospital stays they couldn't afford.

In a few weeks, the couple -- he is 75, she, 69 -- will have to move into a rental.

"It shouldn't be this way," said Steve Taylor, who works as missions director for the N.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The Rev. David Forbes, pastor of Christian Faith Baptist Church in Raleigh, was even more emphatic.

"We are ashamed to call ourselves Christians, Buddhists and Jews," he said during a prayer midway through the service. "Forgive us, oh God."

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