One job and one accident away: Universal health insurance

Many Americans are one job and one accident away from financial ruin. That's one of the reasons why universal health insurance is so important.

Starla Darling is a young mother who lost her job, and her health insurance, with the closure of the cookie factory she'd worked at for eight years. Pregnant at the time, an emergency C-section left her with an unpayable bill for $17,000.

Several times, Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, would lose her insurance coverage for her cancer treatment when she switched jobs. Desperately ill, she had to grapple with insurers while she lay in bed to make them pay for her treatment.

David Tallman of Atlanta, who was born with a congenital heart condition and now has a degenerative eye condition, is one of many people who have had to make career choices that are based on the need to maintain medical insurance.

Advice: Vigorously support universal health insurance.