Arguing for passage of health care reform legislation in Ohio last month, President Obama told the story of Natoma Canfield, a leukemia survivor whose insurance premiums began skyrocketing. Obama said Canfield was presented with a painful choice because “if she paid those health insurance premiums that had been jacked up by 40 percent, she couldn't make her mortgage.” Obama continued: “And despite her desire to keep her coverage, despite her fears that she would get sick and lose the home that her parents built -- she finally surrendered, she finally gave up her health insurance.” And then, within a couple of months of giving up her insurance, Canfield was diagnosed with a recurrence of leukemia.

Shortly after Obama gave his speech, Sean Hannity trumpeted a FoxNews.com article that reported that Canfield “will not lose her home.” Hannity accused Obama of not giving “the full story” and not being “straight with the American people.” As Media Matters for America senior fellow Eric Boehlert noted in March, the conservative attacks on Canfield and Obama don't hold water. And today's New York Times further debunks Hannity's claims.

Hannity said:

HANNITY: As usual, the anointed one did not give us the full story.

Canfield is currently battling leukemia at Cleveland Clinic, a state-of-the-art facility that the president has commended many times. A spokesman for the clinic told Fox News that “she may be eligible for state Medicaid... and/or she will be eligible for charity [care] of some form or type... In my personal opinion she will be eligible for something,” adding that the Cleveland clinic will not put a lien on her home.We wish Miss Canfield all the best in her fight against this terrible disease. We're glad she is getting the treatment and the care she needs. We also wish the president would be straight with the American people.

However, the Times reports that Lyman Sornberger, the executive director of patient financial services at the Cleveland Clinic, (incidentally the same Lyman Sornberger that told Fox that Canfield would probably be eligible for some sort of assistance) stated that “Canfield had good reason to worry about being forced to sell her home to pay medical bills.”

“Facilities or health care systems have an option to decide what their charity care is,” Sornberger told the Times, and "[t]hey could put a lien against her home. They could harm her credit. They could ask her to sell all of her assets and sell her home and pay that bill off to that health care system before they agree to give her any charity." The article also reported: “Even with Medicaid paying the hospital bills, Ms. Canfield's sister said she was worried about how she would pay her basic expenses, like property taxes and utility bills.”

From the Times article:

Of the cast of Americans who made appearances in the health care debate, Ms. Canfield, who is undergoing chemotherapy and preparing for a bone marrow transplant at the Cleveland Clinic, may have had the biggest role.

Her story led Mr. Obama to hold a rally in Ohio, not far from her home, which helped secure the vote of Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democrat who had opposed the bill. Then, Ms. Canfield's congressman, Representative John Boccieri, a freshman Democrat, cited her in announcing that he, too, would support the bill.

As it turns out, Ms. Canfield's grave illness means that her time as one of the roughly 50 million uninsured Americans was brief. In recent days, she was approved for Social Security disability benefits and Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income people.

“She is no longer able to work,” said her sister, Connie Anderson. “She has kind of dropped down into a different category.”

Supporters of the legislation say that proves one of their main points -- the existing system provides little help until catastrophe strikes and, even then, it entails a maze of bureaucracy.

But for some critics, the Cleveland Clinic's quick reassurance that Ms. Canfield need not worry about losing her home to medical costs showed that Mr. Obama exaggerated her case. On Fox News, Sean Hannity accused Mr. Obama of lying about Ms. Canfield's situation.

Ms. Canfield got a break. Her local hospital, Medina General, was taken over last year by the Cleveland Clinic, a prominent hospital system with a sophisticated patient-support structure.

In interviews, Ms. Canfield and her sister credited the hospital with helping secure government aid. Leukemia is on Social Security's list of “compassionate allowances” for an expedited disability ruling. Were she not disabled, Ms. Canfield could not qualify for Medicaid in Ohio under current rules even though she earned well below the federal poverty limit.

That will change as a result of the new law, which will expand Medicaid in 2014. Between now and then, Ohio residents may benefit from the creation of a high-risk insurance pool, either at the state or national level. While other states already have such programs, Ohio does not.

But while the bill provides $5 billion to create or expand such programs, it is not clear how they will work. Premiums are often expensive, and payment rates for providers have not been set. That makes it impossible for a hospital to know if it would be paid more by a high-risk policy or by the state's existing Hospital Care Assurance Program, which reimburses for care of the uninsured.

In the current system, Lyman Sornberger, the executive director of patient financial services at the Cleveland Clinic, said that Ms. Canfield had good reason to worry about being forced to sell her home to pay medical bills.

“Facilities or health care systems have an option to decide what their charity care is,” Mr. Sornberger said. “They could put a lien against her home. They could harm her credit. They could ask her to sell all of her assets and sell her home and pay that bill off to that health care system before they agree to give her any charity.”

Even with Medicaid paying the hospital bills, Ms. Canfield's sister said she was worried about how she would pay her basic expenses, like property taxes and utility bills. Her disability payments do not begin until July, and even then will not cover all her expenses, Ms. Anderson said.