The Affordable Health Care means change and was suppose to open the way to make health care available to everyone. It is suppose to be a gift of life to some, a right to human dignity ... not a privilege, as it is now (or was) to those who could afford to pay for it. But we are a country of people who HATE change and human rights are not important to us anymore, unless you have the means to buy it.
We are a country that is fast becoming a monarchy with the growing base of poor expected to pay tribute to those who have wealth and privilege. We've become a nation of greed shepherding the poor into camps for destruction when they've nothing more to give. Money is now our god that we worship blindly at the expense of all compassion, under the guise of patriotism. Ah .... but this is not the time for my soapbox and I'm in the minority in here in the sandhills of Nebraska. My opinion is not wanted nor respected. Folks just wish I would shut up and bend over. I never was good at being one of the sheep. And it took me many years to throw off the victim trap, so bending over anymore is not an option for me!
Anyway, because of this mandate, I helped my brother, Carl, file for health care on the health care.gov website. Carl has a learning disability that makes it impossible for him to be able to comply without assistance and I'm happy to assist him. Though my assistance waited until the last moment to enroll him. Wonder what folks do that don't have anyone to assist them?
So, we answer the questions and we learn (though I knew this from the Nebraska news) that Carl does not qualify for assistance to pay for the premiums listed. Nebraska refuses to expand it's Medicaid base so the aide to the poor will not be forthcoming until enough compassionate people step up to be the voice for the growing poor.
We then scroll through the options for insurance without looking for the availability of cancer treatment options that he may need. He was diagnosed and treated with chemo and radiation and surgery back in 2001-2003 but the garbage company he worked for in Lincoln, NE, dropped that insurance for another and would not bring him back to their work force once he completed his treatments ... thus he became un-insurable, quit going to the doctors and never got the 'all clear' ... yet. The cheapest available insurance plan we found was $380 a month .
$380 a month ... and I won't bore you with what that insurance covered because we were blown away with the $4500 deductible which led me to wonder why even have insurance then? When you are stuck at poverty level, how is a $4500 deductible plus $380 a month premium going to help keep you from falling deeper into poverty and despair when you are sick?
Carl made around $6000 last year. He is a hard worker but no one that could pay him a decent wage and offer a company insurance will hire him. Is it because of his age of 59? Is it because he looks like one of the relatives from the series Duck Dynasty and even carries his coffee mug around like Sy does with his Tupperware glass of tea? Is it because he no longer has any teeth once they all were removed for his cancer treatments and he's never been able to afford to replace them? Is it because he is so thin (cancer still?) and can't seem to shake the homeless look ... unless he's dressed for a wedding? Is it because when he speaks, he is judged?
He is blessed that a motel in Ogallala desperately needed help and took a chance on him. Maybe they would have let him go after they had enough staff but instead they found him to be one of their most loyal workers ... who actually worked and hasn't missed a day off his schedule to date! Now they, too, feel blessed (my opinion, of course) to have him working for them but he is hardly going to come out ahead making $4 on each room he cleans. I've had him help me clean in my small cleaning business and those who know my expectations of what's clean, know I wouldn't let him help unless he was skilled at cleaning. He is awesome!
So, let's do a quick worksheet on this hard working man's financial standings:
$6000 a year divided by 12 = $500 a month estimated income.
He isn't one of the users of the system as some haters like to lock all poverty stricken folks into. He doesn't hang out at the bars, he doesn't travel, he doesn't even have cable TV or spend compulsively on junk (like I seem to) and his frugal life is very lonely and maybe too quiet for him. He is fortunate that after nearly 2 years homeless, he is now the caretaker of the family home and our mother's car, so he doesn't have rent to contend with. But he is trying to care for the home and car and his share of the insurances and the expenses of living there. So here is an estimated list of his monthly expenses:
$260 ~ electric (the home is all electric)(summer use is $100 less
without air conditioning which he won't use because of
the expense)
$37 ~ water
$77 ~ house & car ins ($850/yr)
$50 ~ phone
$90 ~ fuel for car (and based on fuel costs, this is low)
At this point we are already at $514 in monthly expenses and we haven't even listed his food expense yet. As his sister, I tend to pick up what he can't afford and take him out or invite him to our home for meals! I take him to buy groceries for him once in a while (which he never asks for help with) and he does go to the food pantry once a month and that helps. So please tell me where he can afford the added $380 a month for his health care?
We left the web site bummed. We could not enroll because he has no way to pay for this. Look at his list of expenses? What can he give up to meet this mandate? So will he be one of those folks that that will be fined? Or is he too poor to be fined? Regardless ... he will be without health insurance.
I guess our government and the haters of our poor, will be relieved to know that he has decided that should he get real sick and should cancer return, he will choose, this time, not to go to the doctor. He says he is ready to die. I'm not ready for him to die, however! But I can't afford to pay for his health care plan either.
When I talked him into moving back to Ogallala, he came with an infection under his chin. Funny how an ingrown hair can give one a cancer return scare! We were lucky, we had a clinic for our poor in Ogallala that he went to. I helped him pay for the 1st visit and he payed half with me for the next visit. $35 dollars each visit and the antibiotic cost him $7 from Safeway Pharmacy (did they have an agreement with the clinic as that powerful antibiotic cost Mom so much more and she had insurance?).
That clinic, that proved to be a life line for my brother, was shut down by the city of Ogallala. But they have a beautiful pavilion recently built for some fun times in this Cowboy Capital with it's ideal location by the largest lake in the state. Ogallala will bask in their cities beautiful additions and, possibly, an improved infrastructure, at the expense of the poor they seem so determined to extract tribute from! Those leaders of this community made this decision with insurance already under their belt and a full belly. The poor, a burden to them, can't help them with all the pretties they are trying to glean for their city so it will attract more people/tourists ... with money. Poor people are not an asset to this goal. Tell me where can my brother can go now, that won't cost $120+ up front? Please?!
Do I sound angry? Darn right I am! I should be content ... for my place in this community and country is not at the extreme poverty level of my brother and others like him. But I've been there and the struggle filled me with despair, a despair not easily forgotten.
I voted for this president ... passionately believing in health care as a right, not a privilege! I still passionately believe that! But unlike the clinic which served the poor in this city of Ogallala and was closed by the city leaders, repealing and shutting down the Affordable Care Act would counter the good things about it that have made a big difference (no more denying insurance based on pre-existing issues, a cap on soaring prescription costs, and so much more). Yet, this is the mentality of the country as a whole, so I shouldn't have been surprised and/or appalled by such actions of our city leaders. The clinic should have remained open with some tweaking on those issues that blinded them to the more important issue ... life for our poor. Likewise, the Affordable Care Act needs some tweaking. It needs to be affordable! I'm so very disappointed that it is not!
Health care is not available to all! People will still be dieing because they cannot afford to go to the doctor. APRIL FOOL'S on us!
P.S. I know you haters of President Obama, if you're still reading this ... some are so sick in their hate that the first mention of the Affordable Health Care Act probably got me deleted. Anyway, you will be happy to know I won't vote democrat in the next election. For the first time since this became a privilege, I won't be voting at all.
I refuse to vote for royalty, for folks who have no damn idea what it means to govern for the people and by the people! Money is the platform these days! The king and his/her cronies could not give one rat's ass about the people unless those people have the kind of money that talks! Most of those that strive to make it to this 'top' forget where they came from and why they are there. And they have no worries when it comes to their elite, free health care! Besides they've made it perfectly clear that my vote does not count. And that's no April Fools!
Brother Carl and I ... taken back in 2007
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