The Zeigler's Story on CNN

I got this off of Dr. Gupta's website. I sure wish our politicians would watch this kind of thing!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
It can happen to you

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta Chief Medical Correspondent

The Number 1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills. As we found, it is not just the uninsured, but also the underinsured. It is also people who think they have excellent health insurance, but it is simply not enough.Dawn and William Zeigler were living the American dream with a nice house, cars and plenty of money. When their daughter Brooke was born too early and required multiple surgeries, they never considered the cost because they thought they were covered. And, they were, at least for a while. They were amazed at how quickly the bills piled up, though. Tens of thousands of dollars a day, and soon their policy no longer provided any money. (Watch Video)Brooke Zeigler died when she was 18 months old. Her father told me that he had to tell the doctors to stop working on her. It was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life. The bills that arrived for nearly a million dollars may pale in comparison to losing one's child, but the Zeiglers are now at real risk of losing their dreams.The health care debate is complicated. Again, the Zeiglers were covered, but not enough to cover little Brooke's millions of dollars of expenses. This is the reality of our broken health-care system and continues to be one of the biggest domestic issues on the minds of voters. Any thoughts on how to address this specific issue within of our health-care system?Programming note: Watch "Broken Government: Health Care - Critical Condition" on Thursday and Sunday at 11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT)

This was a bullet we dodged last year, but thank God we didn't lose Matthew.

Remember when this story aired in November 2006 right before we ran out of health insurance for Matthew?