How Clinton story flap started
Posted: Monday, April 07, 2008 12:42 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Questions have been raised today as to whether Clinton has been embellishing a story about a pregnant Ohio woman who, Clinton said, died after being denied health care because of an owed hospital bill. Some of the details of the story have been disputed. But it seems Clinton’s version of the tale does not stray from how she was told the story by a local deputy sheriff. And, in at least one stop, where she retold the story, Clinton accurately attributed it. (We went back and checked the tape from April 4th in Grand Forks, N.D. while speaking at the state Democratic Convention.)
Clinton’s campaign says they tried to vet the story to no avail because of the confidentiality of medical records. "It's not always possible to fully vet, but we try,” spokesman Mo Elleithee told the AP. “For example, medical records are confidential. In this case, we tried but weren't able to fully vet the story."
Here’s how it all began:
From NBC’s Abby Livingston
It was just another campaign stop in the race for Ohio delegates. On Feb. 28, 2008, Clinton and her entourage of staffers and press corps crowded into the Holman home in Pomeroy, Ohio. It was there, in the living room that Clinton shared not just a couch but also policy concerns with Sheriff's Deputy Bryan Holman. Unprompted, he took a deep breath and said, "I'd like to tell you a story of a young woman I know that didn't have health insurance. She worked at a little pizza place around here, and she was pregnant and worked, of course, for minimum wage. She went to the hospital, and the hospital told her that she needed a $100 up front, which she didn't have."
He continued, "Of course, didn't make a lot of money. So they had billed her a couple times for it. And after getting pregnant she went back, like I say, went back again. They told her she needed $100, which she didn't have. And so they refused to see her because of-- she had a bill and stuff from being there before. So she went to another local hospital, and they'd seen her and stopped her labor and told her to come back in two days. Well, before she got back within those two days, her baby died."
Hillary grimaced.
"So they life-flighted her to a hospital in Columbus, and within 15 days, she died," Holman added. "And they come to find out that they'd misdiagnosed what the problem was. And it was a smaller hospital and didn't have the needs to take care of what she needed at that time. But-- her family and them think that if she'd had good insurance and stuff and was taken care of at the first hospital, of course, that had the medical needs to take care of her, that her and her baby would, you know, of course, they'd still be here. That's just, you know, I think that the health insurance thing really needs to be addressed and for people, you know, who work for minimum wage and different things."
After the story, Hilary said, "Well, you know, I hear so many stories like that. People without insurance are more likely to die than people with insurance."
And the seed was sown.
