Brett Bachtle
Updated: October 21, 2020 05:08 PM
Created: October 21, 2020 04:54 PM
(ABC 6 News) - Many Minnesotans believe the fate of their healthcare is on ballot in the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, alongside Protect Our Care Minnesota, an organization dedicated to preserving and expanding access and affordability to healthcare, Democratic candidate for Minnesota First Congressional District Dan Feehan talked with southeastern Minnesota voters about their concerns.
Nicholas Dibble knows first hand how important access to affordable healthcare is. Years back, his twins spent five months in the NICU racking up hefty medical bills. When he got home, they were overflowing his mailbox.
"I've always kept this one bill that I have still to this day and it says, 'Nicholas Dibble you owe 1.4 million dollars due upon receipt,'" said Dibble.
Stories like Dibble's aren't uncommon according to Feehan, who claims he can help turn things around.
"Candidates represent ideas and those are the ideas that you're going to vote for, so who you are voting for very much in a sense is families like these. That's who is on the ballot right now. That is the fight that is ahead of us right now because that's just the first step of the fight. The next step of the fight is to actually protect our healthcare, to improve our healthcare system so that it is affordable for everyone and that prescription drugs are affordable for everyone," Feehan said.
More recently, Anna Richey's daughter got COVID-19 shortly after she was born. While Richey has good insurance, she says the help has still been hard to afford with the unforeseen pandemic.
"A couple of weeks later when everything locked down and my husband who is a chef lost his job and we were paying massive medical bills, I really wish we would have known to be more prepared," said Richey.
After hearing their experiences, Feehan says he wants to make sure no one else feels threatened by insurance companies.
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