My parents have to stay poor to have medicaid - my story

[Politicub]

There is no way I can understand how the GOP can be so callous against those who don't have health care or need to shed their dignity to have medicaid. It boils down to money for them.

My own parents are part of the massive population that have to remain poor, below the poverty level to keep their medicaid coverage.

I am tears thinking about that as I watch this debate. My dad was a laborer, a roofer who worked hard for all of his life but was unable to obtain insurance for a cost he could afford. My mother worked part time as a cashier at Walmart. Thankfully as I was growing up I didn't get sick enough to be hospitalized.

But one day my dad had massive stomach pain and was hospitalized. After surgery, he had a staph infection and we thought he was going to die.

I was 19 at the time, and I distinctly remember going to the hospital business office with my mother to sign a lien on our home in case my dad wasn't able to receive public assistance. I will never forget that moment -- to have to make that choice between their home and health care.

He received some kind of poverty assistance, but wasn't well after the surgery. He still couldn't afford health insurance, and now with a pre-existing condition, couldn't get it anyway.

So my parents did what they needed to do to get on medicaid so they could have coverage. There are so many rules that keep them below the poverty line and limit their ability to control their own destiny. So when the GOP talks about how this bill will "limit freedom," they are liars whose lies will lead to people dieing or going bankrupt. I'm starting to wonder if the people who against reform are even human.

This bill is not perfect, but it will help people like my parents to get back some of their dignity. I never want to have anyone go through what I went through with my mom and dad.

[treestar]

1. People stay on welfare to keep coverage too

I'll never understand why it has to be all or nothing in this country. If you can get a job that pays a low wage and has no insurance, why not have medicaid cover that person? Or does it?

Or even have graduated welfare so that people in low wage jobs still get help. Motivating people to work, so that they would have a better existence.

[Hepburn]

2. ....

....for every person I know....

there seems to be a horrible story like this.

I am so sorry and what happened is just plain wrong.

[Politicub]

4. I am haunted by what happened - it was one of the defining moments of my life

I'm so heartened that we're on the cusp of doing something as a country.

[mdmc]

5. ...

me too..
This is just plain wrong..

Thanks to the OP for sharing..

[Kdillard]

3. I am so sorry for your story. You have to make terrible choices in this country for insurance.

The insurance companies won't insure you for any and everything and in order to get medicaid you have to give up everything. The lack of compassion the Republicans show is truly horrific.

[Politicub]

7. I stay terrified that I'll lose my coverage from work

I'm one of the lucky ones to have insurance through work, but I am constantly afraid that I'll lose my job, not be able to pay COBRA, and then have a pre-existing condition with my hypertension.

So I'm holding out all hope that this bill passes and future bills get passed that continue to fix our broken system.

[Kdillard]

14. Me too.. This thing needs to be passed and fixed as we go along

so that people have more choices than that.

[ChicagoSuz219]

6. The new bill may give them more options. Let's see how it plays out... nt

[Cleita]

8. This is why we needed the public option to be open to everyone regardless

of income. This way people who have no way of getting insurance can BUY into the government plan without having to sell off all their assets. It brings additional money into the plan too that would be squandered with the private insurers. I still have hope that Medicare will be opened up down the line for all who need it and for those who want it. This plan being debated doesn't do that.

[Politicub]

10. But this bill will raise the medicaid cap

I agree with you though. I want medicare opened up, and eventually have a single payer system.

But I can't advocate throwing out the good for the perfect and denying help to some.

[Cleita]

11. Dupe.

[Politicub]

13. Again, I agree with you.

But also again, I don't advocate sacrificing the good for the perfect.

[Cleita]

12. It shouldn't even be because it creates a two tiered system between the

haves and have nots. Medical care anyway shouldn't even be based on finances but medical necessity and access.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. +1 Thanks for sharing your story

[juno jones]

15. I am sorry to hear about your father.

It makes me so angry that the means testing for any aid in this country basically necessitates the absolute poverty of the recipient with no allowance for improval of resources or assets even tho common sense would dictate helping workers and the working class before they fell into such abject straits. Once one falls to that level, such help seems nearly punitive in nature and I've met a few 'social workers' who wielded their power like a blunt instrument to enforce the travesties of the system.

I don't know the answer. Respect for the working class and people who have worked all their lives to make others rich seems to be out of the question, probably since we don't pump money into lobbyists and congressmen.

[Politicub]

16. The forced poverty is self defeating since most of those folks would

seek out better paying jobs. But they must choose between health care or a better job. And people making more money would improve the economy.

It's insane to keep people poor and strip them of their dignity simply to be insured.

[juno jones]

17. Yes. n/t

[msallied]

18. I have been thinking recently...

about how qualifying for government assistance not only means that you have to be below the poverty line, but that you have to stay under it in order to keep receiving it. Otherwise, you have to shoot the moon and go from below poverty to far enough over it that you get a great paying job with all of the benefits included. All the people in the middle fall through the cracks.

It's a shitty system we have that does everything it can to keep the poor poor, the rich richer, and the folks in the middle struggling or completely ignored.

[Doremus]

19. My brother as well. His wife is in long-term care, probably for the rest of her life.

His employer insurance recently capped out.

He had to spend down to nothing to qualify for Medicaid.

And the repukes and some blue dogs find nothing wrong with this scenario.