We are an advocacy and education group. Our purpose is to educate the public and government officials about the disastrous state of the current health care system and the toll it takes on Americans and their families.

Every year, some 45,000 Americans die prematurely because they didn’t have access to health care. Mike’s story is just the one we know, but it’s hardly the only one.

We are not a political group; we work to bring people together in hopes of reaching a workable solution. Register and share your experience.

Your Stories

Bobby Butterworth

My Friend, Bobby Butterworth had some chest pains a month ago, on a Thursday. We told him to go to the ER. He decided to wait the evening, because he had no insurance - He felt a hospital bill would bankrupt him and leave him on the street (the ER asks for money up front [...]

Leslie in Washington

I spoke at a candlelight vigil in Washington, DC, on Dec. 8. Someone recorded it on video and posted it on You Tube. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQjj4yErw9M

Recent Comments

Story o' Mike

 

Mike, about seven months before he diedMike was Michael Timothy Danforth, an egomaniac

 

 

with self-esteem issues. He was a smart, funny, generous, wise and loving person who died because he didn’t have health insurance.

 

That meant he couldn’t afford the colonoscopy that might have found his cancer before it was too late. He died April 1, 2008. He was 33.

 

Mike is one of an estimated 45,000 people who die every year because they didn’t have insurance and so didn’t have access to the lifesaving diagnostic tests, or diabetic supplies that would help them monitor blood glucose, or medication that would help lower blood pressure.

We want to put faces to those numbers. Tell us your story. Post blogs, post photos. Let everyone see that good people are dying — beloved people. After all, every one of those people was loved as much as we all loved Mike.

Help Life o' Mike

We need your help now more than ever. Your tax-deductible donation will help us get Patient Pals and Family Friends off the ground. Please consider a gift in honor or in memory of a loved one.

Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training

Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 10 days, as we train our next group of volunteers for Patient Pals & Family Friends. The four-hour training will run 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and will include lunch. Patient Pals are people who have experience with an illness or disability. After training, they will be paired with someone who is newly diagnosed or disabled. Family Friends will be volunteers who are paired with family members of people who are ill or disabled, and will have been through the expeience of having a loved one with illness or disability.

In Loving Memory

Life o' Mike has participated two memorial services to remember those who have died from our broken health care system, one in Asheville and one in Raleigh. If you would like to organize more of these services, please contact lifeomike@gmail.com and we will help put it together. The services include stories, prayers and information on how people of faith can make a difference. About 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, according to a recent study by Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That breaks down to one American every 12 minutes. Those people can be honored in the service by a bell chime and a moment of silence every 12 minutes in the service. For more information, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712.

Contact your representatives

Ask them what they're doing to fix health care!

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter
    Show your support for Life o' Mike on your car

    Latest Posts

    The Ritz 14

    We had 3,000 people in front of the Ritz Carlton today to protest against the control of our health care by Big Insurance.  I joined a number of people I met at the last event (when we blocked the entrance to the US Chamber of Commerce), plus 3,000 others, and we marched on the Ritz [...]

    Heading to DC again

    I’m flying to Washington tomorrow for some protests, possible arrest and an appearance on The Ed Show on MSNBC on Wednesday. Tomorrow is a travel day and then the big protest on Tuesday. We’re heading over to the hotel where America’s Health Insurance Plans is holding a meeting to plan its attack on health reform. Some [...]

    When people deny the facts …

    I had an op-ed piece published in the Citizen-Times today (http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100228/OPINION03/100226027/1006). I talked about the fact that 47,000 people die every year because they don’t have health insurance — one every 12 minutes — and I got an e-mail from a person who believes every American has access to quality health care. He didn’t believe [...]

    Oh good. It’s covered.

    We got a letter from the insurance company today telling us that the insurance company has approved Rob’s hospitalization for heart surgery. What a relief. I was afraid they might refuse it because they hadn’t pre-approved it. You never know. I know a woman whose insurance refused to cover her breast cancer because they said it was [...]

    Anniversary syndrome

    It was two years ago today that I got the news Mike’s cancer was back. The doctors had hoped to give him another year, but the cancer didn’t respond to chemo and he died six weeks later, on April 1. I got the call on my way into work, and Rob and I dropped everything and [...]

    There ought to be a law

    It ought to be illegal for an insurance company to stall a vital medical test for 36 hours. Rob came incredibly close to dying because Blue Cross/ Blue Shield insisted on pre-approving a heart stress test for 36 hours. Rob’s doctor had done an EKG that showed irregularities. That meant there was something wrong with his [...]

    A nearly fatal delay

    Turns out Rob didn’t need to come so close to dying last night. His family doctor wanted him to have the stress test Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, but Blue Cross/Blue Shield wanted to review the decision of a doctor who had found a dangerous irregularity in Rob’s EKG. When it comes to heart problems, every [...]