Panel To Discuss Universal Health Care
Couple Struggles To Pay Large Medical Bills

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A central Iowa couple said they are close to bankruptcy because of medical bills.

NewsChannel 8 found that there are many families just like them all across the state.

Chris Stark, 57, has had Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS, for four years.


He went into respiratory failure a year ago. The couple had to make a life-or-death decision over the weekend about whether or not to be put Chris Startk on a ventilator.

He chose life, but now it's costing his family.

"It was a very tough decision. He agonized over it for a week, and he finally decided he wasn't ready to just go to hospice and die," said his wife, Rose Stark.

The ventilator keeps him going, but he can't do anything on his own.

"He has to have somebody with him all the time. Because he can get congested so quick and he can't call out. He can't push a button," Stark said.

The Starks have been married for 37 years. Rose is at home with Chris every minute that she is not working.

They pay a nurse $43 an hour to care for him during the day. Chris Stark said he likes being at home.

There's also few alternatives. Stark said it's cheaper than a hospital stay and that hospice won't take him. She also said that the only care center that will take him is always full.

Chris Stark's health care costs forced them to remortgage their house.

Stark's health insurance and his Social Security disability payments are barely making ends meet.

"One more serious health incident and financially, I will be in big trouble," Stark said.

"The health care system in this country and state is broken, and we know that," said Sen. Jack Hatch, who is state chairman of the Health and Human Services Subcommittee.

He said the Starks are not alone and that health care affordability is a huge problem in Iowan.

Two months ago, the Legislature created the state's first health care reform commission.

Hatch will co-chair the bipartisan panel that will look at bringing universal, comprehensive health care to Iowans.

"When we start choosing between an early death to save our families from any financial hardship and quality of life they deserve by being in this country, we have failed as a nation and our values are not high enough," Hatch said.

The Starks said they could not agree more.

"I know there are other diseases just as bad as this one, and we're slowly, as a nation, addressing each one of them, but we need to get with it," Stark said.

The commission on health care reform will begin meeting next month.

A universal health care plan in Iowa will be up to lawmakers next session.

Since it is a bipartisan panel, it could happen. There such health plans in three other states.

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