I am a volunteer women’s minister in Aurora, Colorado. I work a full-time day job and then spend about 30-40 hours per week assisting with the spiritual and welfare needs of the families in this area.

We take someone to an urgent care or emergency clinic about once a week. I have been so sadly disappointed in the health care available for the adult uninsured. Despite all of our community resources, we cannot get treatment for some really dire problems. If we cannot help these people get well, we cannot get them into education and employment programs. Their good health is a top priority for me.

I’m getting pretty good at knowing all of the resources but they’re clearly not enough. Some of the most wonderful programs in the state either do not service people living in my area or they have lengthy wait lists and cannot see these patients. Worse, I am now finding that if the families we serve cannot afford the co-pays or have allowed medical bills to pile up, no one will see them.

I will share two short stories.

I have a little family surviving on Section 8 housing, $300 of food stamps, and $179 per month. The husband has lived with a nasty hernia for five years — it keeps him from working. He has a seizure disorder and cannot afford his medication. The mother has many health problems related to an old car accident. They can no longer obtain medical care through various programs because they couldn’t pay the co-pays and community programs were out of prescription money.

I took another sister to a large Emergency Room. Her physician had diagnosed massive uterine tumors and recommended immediate surgery. The tumors were pressing against other organs, she was in pain and could hardly breathe. Her bladder was prolapsed and something was protruding from her body. The ER physician acknowledged that she was in a crisis but could not admit her, he referred her to a day clinic. The day clinic, which had assured us they would take a “Medicaid pending” patient, wouldn’t see her without insurance or a $250 cash payment, and the surgeon said he wouldn’t schedule surgery without insurance. We were about to try another program but it would take 10 days to get an intake appointment and even more to get to a doctor. Of course, without Medicaid or insurance, the large hospitals that we contacted would not admit her.

She borrowed $3500 from family and friends and went to Juarez, Mexico for surgery. The doctors there removed one tumor the size of a small watermelon, along with several other tumors. She had an infection so bad that they said should would have died within a month. She is now improving and we hope for her full recovery.

What I want to know is, why did this lovely woman have to go to Mexico for treatment? It was risky and, in this great country, it should be unnecessary.

I want our legislators to know that, if you are depending on volunteer agencies to care for the medically underserved, it is not enough. They are overburdened and underfunded. We need something more immediate, more robust, and more publicly available.