Marcel Rivera News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> it's going to take a while if they enacted it tomorrow, it's going to take a while for all of this to come about. what do you do? >> reporter: i'm not hearing a lot of optimism at this table. but marcel rivera, who is on the clinic's board of directors, hopes that affordable insurance is on the way. if not, he has to find a way to stay healthy for four more years, when he qualifies for medicare. but there are limitations to what this clinic can do. it provides primary care and wellness care. if someone is seriously injured or has a serious illness and needs to go to the hospital, they still...

>> reporter: marcel rivera had to drop his health insurance about seven years ago. at $500 a month, he says it got too expensive when he had other bills to pay. what sort of choices would you have to make if you had health insurance? what would you be giving up? >> my daughter, kayla's, tuition. in college. >> reporter: you couldn't pay your daughter's tuition if you paid for your health care? >> i could not. it's either one or the other. >> reporter: rivera is one of an estimated 80,000 people living uninsured in new orleans. he's among the working uninsured, stuck making too much money to qu...

All this, what do you do? >> i'm not hearing a lot of optimism at this table. >> reporter: but marcel rivera, who is on the clinic's board of directors, hopes affordable insurance is on the way. if not, he has to find a way to stay healthy for four more years when he qualifies for medicare. and this clinic provides a safety net for those uninsured workers for primary care and wellness care, but if they're injured or have any serious illness they have to go to the hospital they still do not have that safety net. this is some of the stress taken off of them but not perfect. >> you're still, you ...

♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. 26 minutes past the hour right now. a week-long examination of broken government continues this morning, and right now lawmakers in washington, basically spinning their wheels while health care costs continue to skyrocket. millions of people are living without insurance and it's not just the people who have no jobs. there's a growing number of working americans who simply can't afford insurance. david mattingly joins us live now from new orleans with an "am original." some of the people you spoke with are trying to find creative ways to get c...

here are the top stories for you in the "cnn newsroom." winter just won't quit in the northeast. a travel chaos, as you can imagine. power outages. one man killed by a falling tree limb. going forward after the big health care reform summit. we look at options the president and democrats may consider to pass a bill. and our cnn hero of the week helping children learn to read with a poor man's version of the bookmobile. take a look. we'll show you in a second. good morning, everyone, i'm tony harris and you are in the "cnn newsroom." you know, it is a question, maybe even a moan...