How Uninsured Americans Affect Your Care

Oct. 24 -- Phillip Dahl moved back to Colorado last year, in part to take care of his ailing parents, when his own health crisis hit. He started seeing spots in his right eye.

"I started seeing weird colors," Dahl, 42, of Bennett, Colo. said. "I was scared, I mean it was like, my dad is now blind from glaucoma."

With no insurance and not much money, Dahl put off seeing a doctor, but after a few weeks he wound up at the emergency room. Doctors explained that he had a detached retina, nearly torn all the way off, and only immediate surgery could save his vision.

"I think it is the most serious eye surgery that is done," said Dr. Naresh Mandava at Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute at the University of Colorado in Aurora, Colo.

In Glenelg, Md., 31-year-old Josh Eyre, a laid-off Web designer, also suffered from this "delayed care" syndrome. A victim of high blood pressure since his teens, Eyre couldn't afford his own insurance, or the $150 a month for his medication. But when he went to a doctor last May, things had reached a crisis point:

The nurse called the doctor in immediately after finding his blood pressure was a shockingly high 276 over 174. Eyre said he passed out cold for about 15 minutes. After being rushed to a nearby emergency room, he was in the hospital for more than two weeks. When it was all over, he had no answers to what was causing his disease, but he did have some $30,000 in medical bills.