LI Youth Testifies On Medical Costs
by Lynn Rosellini
Newsday, 04/1971

Hempstead – A 20-year-old Oceanside youth, paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a football injury and faced with “endless” medical bills, won the admiration and sympathy yesterday of two U.S. senators who are trying to find a way to ease the financial burden of problems such as his.
The youth, Kenneth Kunken, told a Senate subcommittee on health that he would need 24-hour care by an attendant “possibly for the rest of my life.” His father, Leonard, said that the present system of health care offers no means to pay medical costs for his son, which he estimated at more that $40,000 a year. After their testimony, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mas.), the subcommittee chairman, said, “I’m a great admirer of his (Kunken’s) spirit. It’s an essential part of the health crisis in this country, when you can have this kind of devastation in a family.” /full article/