Some talked about the fear that their employees will get sick. For others, it was their grandchildren.

Sitting in front of a video camera Monday afternoon at Lawrence Public Library, area residents discussed what it was like for people living without health insurance.

Kansas Health Care For All – a Lawrence-based grass-roots organization – offered them the chance to give testimonials about their struggles under the nation’s health care system.

Along with tales of the uninsured, others talked about medical bills that pile up, even for people who have insurance.

Video testimonials are being gathered across the country as part of an effort headed by Healthcare-NOW, an organization pushing for a single-payer health care system to provide universal coverage for all Americans. The videos will go to members of Congress and presidential candidates.

“This is an effort to get people to discuss their problems and how it relates to the bigger picture,” said David Goering, a member of Kansas Health Care For All.

One of the first people to speak Monday was Janney Burgess. Her daughter’s husband just lost his job because of downsizing, so the family of five has no health insurance, Burgess said.

People without insurance were not the only ones who spoke.

Senior Hilda Enoch discussed the difficulties she and her husband face purchasing drugs under Medicare Part D. And Amy Laughlin, who is battling breast cancer for the third time, said she was so fed up with how much her prescription insurance company was requiring her to pay for medicine that she was about to call the state’s insurance commissioner.

Kristin Brumm, executive director for the Douglas County AIDS Project, sees the plight of the uninsured among her clients and employees.

Some people who have AIDS and HIV aren’t eligible for Medicaid, but they aren’t healthy enough to work full time and, therefore, don’t receive health insurance benefits, Brumm said.

“So they fall through the cracks and end up with thousands of dollars in bills,” she said.

Because health insurance costs in her office have climbed by 800 percent in the past few years, Brumm said, DCAP could no longer afford health insurance for its employees and had to phase it out.

“It is just frightens me every day. I know I have employees who aren’t covered,” she said.