Good morning! My name is Marshall Cooper. Bear with me now. Bert’s given me his blessings. There’s just no short and easy way to share my journey. However, Bert assures me that he is compensating for my longer testimony with a shorter sermon!

I’m pretty sure I became an employee of the 1 Pres. in the fall off 2004. It’s a bit of drive from Pennsylvania for us: my wife Barbara and our three daughters, Emily, Alexis and Megan. We moved to the States after nearly 20 years of singing and living in Europe.

As a singer I was very happy to have a regular church gig and some steady income. But in the beginning this was just another job to me. I’ve sung in many houses of worship before, many different faiths. You see that’s it, I was always just an employee. I never got to become or had the feeling that I belonged or was invited in to be a part any of those other places.

What happened in my life that changed all of that? My doctor called it catastrophic.

My wife and I were in a major car accident in January of 2003. We walked away without major injury, so we thought.

But a year and ½ later, on stage in Harrisburg, PA, I had an excruciating pain and numbness strike me in my left hip and down my leg. So bad I didn’t think I could make it off the stage. Everyone got to see a slow decline in my walking; not so visible was the decline in my spirit. I didn’t have health insurance and I was in denial about how much pain I was in.

I was at my regular doctor for a check up and she talked me into seeing a local orthopedist. He said I needed a new hip. So, I told him about my insurance situation and he kind of said, oh well. You need about 60 to 70 thousand dollars for the procedure, here are some painkillers and there’s the door. Good luck.

 I was really lost. I thought this was how I would spend the rest of my life, as a cripple, end of career, end of being able to move. It was that painful to walk, to sing, and to sit, to anything. And the pain medication eventually made me sick too. It tore my insides apart.

One night as usual, I was sitting at the computer; I didn’t sleep well and spent a lot of time trying to lose myself in cyberspace. I think I had sunk to my lowest point and God started to step in and guide me.  I remembered about a ‘60 minute’ TV show segment about ‘medical tourism’, it seemed an affordable alternative.

That night I must have sent out a dozen emails to hospitals in India. One response really stuck out and got my attention from Dr.G.Balasubramanian, Dr Bala for short, an orthopedist with the Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore, India. His specialty is hip and shoulder resurfacing. In fact, he got his training and was part of the medical development team in Manchester, England where the technique was developed.

There was humanity to his emails. I found a sympathetic voice on the other side of the world. He answered all of my and my orthopedics questions and went a step further. He simply said, “Don’t worry Marshall, I’ll take care of you.” His words filled me with hope and trust. So I had new x-rays taken, emailed them to Dr Bala, got the word from my local doctor that he would give me follow up care after the surgery, set a date for traveling to India, got a visa and booked my flight.

I traveled there alone. I couldn’t wait any longer.  It was a long and difficult journey, took 28 hours with 2 layovers.  God guided me across the world for healing of body and soul. That’s what I found there.

Unfortunately, my hip was too damaged for a resurfacing and needed a complete replacement.

My life was turning around! I had the surgery and was up and walking without any pain the day after! I was going up and down stairs the next day. I was finding that my life wasn’t over. I’d be able to dance at my daughters’ weddings some day!!

I stayed in India under Dr Bala’s care for a little over two weeks. I wish I could have stayed longer. I had been shown such kindness by some of the sweetest people I had ever met. I felt God’s spirit in them. But home and family beckoned for me and I returned and was having a very good recovery.

 Here comes the catastrophic part. The doctor who promised he’d give me follow up care now refused to see me!! That was tough. I was having problems; the wound wasn’t healing up right. It wasn’t closing. I needed help. I found other ways to get medical assistance through a local wound center. It was really set up for diabetics, but they would see me, and they and me got me through a rough time. Now it was summer, 5 months later. I was mowing the lawn again and splitting wood, sweating like a horse and doing all that I could.

Suddenly, and I mean within a 24 hour period, a goose egg sized thing grew out of my wound. The wound doctor’s face went gray and he immediately sent me to the emergency room. The orthopedist who refused to see me was the orthopedist on call. And he still refused to see me. I was admitted, x-rayed, blood tested, cat scanned informed by the hospitalist that he thought we had a catastrophic event going on, huge infection, cracked bones, just end of life stuff.

Remember, I still didn’t have any health insurance. Part of me thought it would be easier if I just died. Thank God that the hospitalist didn’t think so. Thank God that God didn’t think so.

He got me to the best man for the job, Dr Eric Martin. I was transferred to the Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, NY, with family in tow. We had to wait quite a while there in the Emergency Room, where guess what, this boil, goose egg thing on my leg burst open. It was quite an infection.

I was admitted, x-rayed, blood tested, cat scanned again and seen by Dr Martin. He informed us that the whole hip replacement had to be removed, a medical spacer put in, in its’ place and I would need to do 6 weeks worth of intravenous antibiotics.

How could we pay for all this? How would we make it through? But I calmed done, the same calm that I had in India. A voice inside said everything would be okay. I felt gentle hands holding me up. I felt Gods’ presence.

What followed was six months with 5 more operations.

Randy - Los Angeles, California
As a 70-year old American male, my primary care physician found some suspicious looking skin molds. He recommended that I see a dermatologist. It took me over 7 months to find a dermatologist who would accept a new patient on Medicare. Fortunately there was no issue, but had I had Melanoma or some other form of skin cancer, the results of waiting for over 7 months could have been disastrous.

Joanne – Georgia
In January 2007 my husband died and I was converted to COBRA coverage. In January 2010, those rights expire and I will find myself in the individual market for health insurance. Having paid in premiums over my adult lifetime (seldom meeting the deductible), I believe I was a very profitable client. Now, however, I am being asked to pay exorbitant premiums because I am sixty years old! It’s not enough to have lost my husband, now I am in jeopardy of losing my healthcare coverage. We need fundamental reform and we need it NOW!

Heather - Spokane, Washington
I have 1 adult child who is without healthcare coverage and he forgoes going to the doctor unless he has a serious illness, and doesn’t go to the dentist at all because every health care visit cost comes out of his pocket. He has no money to pay because he is a student and is living on student loans. I truly believe in a health care reform in which all are covered fairly.

Paige – Missouri
Five years ago, due to budget issues, I lost my job as the pastoral associate in my parish. My husband works part-time on our small farm and part-time in the city 60 miles away for an urban planning firm. I had been the provider of health insurance so we were both without for a while. In 2007 we moved my 401K to an IRA and discovered that there was a new law allowing us to establish a Health Savings Account with some of that 401K money without penalty. We did and were able to purchase health insurance for a $400-per-month premium and a $5000 deductible.

Problem is, after two years that HSA account was depleted and we were avoiding the doctor. Then last month I fell on our basement floor. I thought I had broken my arm and my first thought was a terrified, "How much is this going to cost?" The arm wasn’t broken, but the rotator cuff is injured and my primary care doc prescribed physical therapy. I still haven’t gone for therapy because of the cost. Finally, we made the difficult decision of withdrawing money from my IRA to fund our HSA as well as pay off our house, thereby saving a mortgage payment each month.

Kathy - Portland, Oregon
Since my children are too old to be on my health insurance, and are working minimal wage jobs, they are living without health care. My son visited the emergency room twice in the last six months, once for an eye infection, and one for swine flu possibility. He did not have the flu, but needed Tamoxifin, an expensive medicine, just in case. Now he is trying to pay impossibly high emergency bills!

Joe - East Grand Rapids, Michigan 
I have witnessed sorrowful tragedies among the homeless, down and out, unemployed, and under-employed human beings who gravitate into our Grand Rapids, MI "Heartside” neighborhood. These unfortunate people daily flock for much-needed medical and dental treatment! Our mission to reflect the love of Christ to all who come through our doors by building relationships and offering programs that foster dignity and respect is challenged each day when so many of these ill and suffering folks, who lack health insurance for preventive and contingent care. Thus many are forced into emergency rooms when their health problems reach crisis levels. My Catholic faith requires that our Catholic citizens recognize and treat all human beings in the light of these principles.