"Patients are not mere anecdotes," said Dr. Linda Peeno, former review physician for Humana, during her testimony before Rep. Kucinich's Domestic Policy Subcommittee. But many insurance companies claim just that - that people who've managed to get their story before Congress and the media are exceptions, not the rule. Unfortunately, today's testimony made it clear that the exceptions are plenty, and the rules need changing.

First, the panel heard from Mark Gendernalik and Erinn Ackley, both of whom recounted their family members' struggles with health care. Mark talked about his young daughter Sidney, who suffers from a rare neurological disease. Repeatedly, his insurance company would fail to return calls or delay providing answers about Sidney's care. "Clearly," Mark said, "their plan was to exhaust us."

Erinn described her father's emotionally draining two-year fight with cancer, and later, with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. Her father, Bill Ackley, desperately needed a bone marrow transplant in order to curb his Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Even though a bone marrow match was found and the doctors were ready to proceed, the insurance company kept denying his claim, leading to a 126 day delay between when the transplant was initially requested and when it actually took place. Bill died less then five months after the transplant.

After Mark and Erinn's heartbreaking testimonies, the conversation moved to the provider side of the issue. Dr. Mel Sterm, a pediatrician from Maryland, discussed how almost all of his staff deals with chasing down insurance companies and forcing them to pay for patient care, instead of actually helping people get better. He told the story of a baby with a tumor that was denied life-saving surgery by an insurance company, until Dr. Stern stepped in and told the company that he would go to the press with this problem. Suddenly, the insurance company relented.

Finally, Dr. Peeno and Wendell Potter, the former head of corporate communications at CIGNA, discussed the covert practices of insurance companies aimed at undermining patient rights and ballooning their own profits. Dr. Peeno explained that her "job evaluation depended on how many claims I denied and the amount of cost savings I brought in."

Moving from the suffering of patients to the bloated profits of insurance companies, the panel clearly proved that vast reforms are needed now, before the situation gets any more out of control. Wendell pointed out that a Public option is absolutely vital because currently, the insurance companies are the ones running the show.

Tomorrow, Rep. Kucinich and the other Representatives on the committee will hear from insurance company executives. We'll bring you the latest news from what will surely be a charged hearing, following the many insurance company abuses revealed today.