In Baltimore, Maryland, Lucky Severson translated those overall numbers into individual stories, beginning with a disabled homeless man named Dave Scheihing.
LUCKY SEVERSON: Dave Scheihing is living an American nightmare, one that began in circumstances many Americans find themselves in.
DAVE SCHEIHING: I was working and I didn't have insurance, and I got sick.SEVERSON: Six years ago, 31-year-old Dave Scheihing was working at McDonald's when he was disabled with a series of strokes. Because he had no insurance, within two years, he owed the hospital almost $70,000.
(to Mr. Scheihing): What happened then?
Mr. SCHEIHING: I was paying on it but I had to sacrifice either rent or prescriptions, and I couldn't pay on bills when I was paying for prescriptions. So eventually I lost my home.
SEVERSON: For the past several years, Dave Scheihing has been living in and out of homeless shelters, which he says are generally unsafe and drug-ridden. So he spends most nights on the street. He will not forget the blizzard of 2002.
Mr. SCHEIHING: It was a miserable experience. I mean, walking around wet, smelling. People don't want to be associated with you. I just really wanted to be left alone. I was just so miserable. I couldn't get the bills paid. I couldn't get ahead. I couldn't get a job. This is where I sleep, right here.
SEVERSON: This is his latest street home in downtown Baltimore.Mr. SCHEIHING: It gets cold at night because the floor is marble. It gets cold.
SEVERSON: Through it all, he says, he has continued to pay collection agencies.
Mr. SCHEIHING: Whenever I had a job, if it was nothing more or nothing less than $5 or $10 -- whatever -- I paid on that bill.
SEVERSON: Dave Scheihing may be an extreme example of the cruel consequences of being uninsured, but his predicament is not unique. Consider this -- eight out of 10 people without health coverage come from working families, but their job doesn't come with health insurance or they can't afford it, so they are vulnerable.
Getting health care is less of a problem for the poorest in America, because many are covered by Medicaid and other government programs. Those hurting the most are low- and middle-income workers. Ron Pollack, with Families USA, says many Americans have the wrong picture of those who are uninsured.
RON POLLACK (Families USA): A lot of people think, thought, well, the uninsured are poor, they're lazy, they are minorities -- who knows what the pejorative term might be? The reality is ... the overwhelming majority of people who are uninsured are in working families. The stereotype about the uninsured is way off. Unidentified Man: Mom, you give consent right here. And your current employer?
CHRISTIE LILES: Self, I clean houses.
SEVERSON: Christie Liles is married with three children. Her oldest daughter works a full-time and part-time job and still can't afford health insurance. Her husband is trying to start a new company.
Ms. LILES: None of us have insurance right now. So until he gets going with that and I am only cleaning houses -- so until we can afford the price of insurance, because I heard it is a thousand a month right now, so you know we can't afford that.
SEVERSON: She brought her youngest son Jordan, with a high fever, to this clinic in Orlando, called Shepherd's Hope, one of several operated by St. Luke's Lutheran Church. The Reverend Brian Roberts says volunteer doctors treat 15 to 19 patients at this clinic one night each week, and could treat more if more doctors were available.
Reverend BRIAN ROBERTS (St. Luke's Lutheran Church): Our Lord has called us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to recognize that there is a moral call to assist those who have a need, and this is clearly a need. Ms. LILES: This is my last one I got to look after. He's in high school.
SEVERSON: (to Ms. Lilies): Well, that must be a worry?
Dr. Carlos Velez is one of the volunteer doctors at St. Luke's clinic. He says he donates his services because he realizes that but for the grace of God, he could be in the same situation.
DANA ANDREWS: He is a hard worker and committed to his job and, you know, works Monday through Friday. And just can't afford medical insurance. I mean, he is very embarrassed, and rightfully so. 
So many sick, uninsured Americans are crowding emergency rooms, where they are rarely denied treatment, an increasing number of community hospitals are closing down under the financial burden. And for those who do end up in an emergency room, and then a hospital bed, like Dave Scheihing, the bills keep coming -- if not from the hospital, from the collection agencies.
