The battle for healthcare reform is becoming thorny, to say the least. The sad thing is–we may emerge from the battle unchanged. That is, with no change or real progress made in our healthcare system.

And for those who blather on about the “downside” of having a public option, and the glories of private insurance, here’s some bedtime reading. I know, there are stories galore about people dying from lack of insurance, losing their homes due to medical bills, having their coverage canceled because they developed athlete’s foot (I actually did read that one), and so on.

But the following is a real story from a real person. She is a friend of mine, a person I’ve know for about 10 years. Without a public option, she doesn’t stand much of a chance of survival. This is an email she sent to friends and acquaintances, urging us to contact our reps and demand real change in the healthcare system–which means that the U.S. should join the rest of the industrialized world and provide some sort of universal coverage to its citizens.

“I am one of those 47 million people with no health insurance because I have pre-existing conditions. My health insurance was rescinded by my insurer when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. And I’m not alone: private insurers have rescinded more than 20,000 other Americans with devastating diseases over the last few years, so don’t think this can’t happen to you too. In fact, the three largest companies testified before Congress recently that they target 1,500 expensive illness and and even pay their employees incentives to mine patient medical records for omissions or reasons to rescind their policies when they one of these conditions.