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MIAMI (CBS4) ― In a county where tremendous wealth, such as the glitz and glamour of South Beach draws attention away from people who are struggling, as many as three quarters of a million people in Miami-Dade County have no health insurance; no resources to pay for major health catastrophes. Percentage-wise, it's the largest group of un-insured people in the country.

CBS4 investigative reporter Stephen Stock reports that in some cases, that can be a death sentence for people without insurance or cash.

Lester Cataya remembers the days of joy fishing with his beloved uncle Francisco Martinez.

"We went like fishing together worked together at the house," said Cataya.

But Lester Cataya rarely goes fishing anymore. The memories are just too painful ever since his uncle died five years ago.

"He was man of the house. It's not the same house," said Cataya.

What makes it all the more painful for Lester Cataya and his family is how the 62 year-old died in a hospital bed waiting, waiting on proper medical treatment, waiting on a transfer to a hospital that would take him, because Francisco had no money and no insurance.

"Why'd they let the guy die because he had no insurance," he asked

It happened in August 2002 at Hialeah Hospital.

Records show the Francisco Martinez showed up at the emergency room with chest and arm pains. A doctor evaluated him within minutes and put him in intensive care. Four days later, still in the hospital, Martinez had a heart attack and doctors determined Martinez needed a heart catheterization to save his life.

There was a problem. Hialeah Hospital does not have a license for a catheterization lab. Doctors can't do heart catheterizations there, which meant Martinez would have to go elsewhere for the procedure.

Instead, Francisco Martinez waited and waited and waited.

"It's not right to treat a human being like that because he doesn't have any money," said Cataya.

Court records in a lawsuit filed by Lester Cataya show Francisco Martinez waited 9 days to be transferred to a hospital licensed to do heart catheterization.

In this case that was Jackson Memorial; the only hospital with a catheterization lab which would also accept a man with no money and no insurance.

On the tenth day Francisco Martinez died, sitting in the Intensive Care Unit at Hialeah still waiting for the transfer to Jackson; a transfer that came too late.

"Francisco was suffering from a life threatening situation and we believe he became an afterthought because he didn't have insurance," said Todd Rosen, Cateya's attorney.

Click Here to read the family's suit.

The CBS4 I-Team reviewed hundreds of pages in the lawsuit. The court records show a disturbing breakdown in one man's case that allowed him to die. But medical and legal experts tell us Martinez's story is not unique. Rather, they say, it serves as an indictment on the way health care is administered throughout America.

Martinez's case manager Marie Leandre admitted in a sworn court deposition that if the 62 year-old had had insurance, his case would have been handled differently.

"The physician would not choose Jackson. They would have chosen another hospital and they would have a physician to receive the patient," she said in the deposition.

"It's not just the poor; 70% of those that are uninsured work full time 11% have part time employment, " said Doctor Jose "Joe" Greer, who served as a consultant to Presidents Clinton and Bush on health care reform.

"So you're talking the overwhelming majority of those that don't have health coverage are contributing taxes working every single day, these are hard working families that live in a country where we have no system."

Dr. Greer says without changes more will die or suffer needlessly just like Francisco Martinez.

"You can lay blame wherever you'd like. The bottom line is it doesn't work. We need sweeping reform in this nation. We need the political will. We need the will of everybody to say why are we the worst of all industrial nations? What happened to our competitive edge that we wanted to be best," said Greer.

We contacted the attorneys for both the doctors and Hialeah Hospital as part of this lawsuit.

Only the hospital responded to our request for comment on the record.

Click Here to read their statement.

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