Al Gore tried this same tactic in 2000 with Winifred Skinner.
Al Gore said, "It brings tears to your eyes. Here's this adorable, elderly woman out in Iowa who's so sick and so poor, that in order to pay for medicines she needs to stay alive, she has to scavenge in a local dump yard for cast-off tin cans."
"She gets a small pension," he said. "But in order to pay for her prescription drug benefits she has to go out seven days a week, several hours a day, picking up cans."
It turns out, as the statement was rectified, Mrs. Skinner goes out zero days a week, for zero hours a day, and that she was only speaking "in the name of" people she assumes must do this.
In 1994, Hillary Clinton used Kathy Bush when citing her case as an example of the high cost of medical care.
Great collection of links.
Excellent compilation, good place to bump this thread.
Phony Soldiers In the March Towards Socialized Medicine!
Excellent post...and one that should be forwarded to all the news organizations