Post by Dave on Jul 6, 2014 10:17:04 GMT -5
Couple splits up to stay insured
Tom Wilemon, The Tennessean, July 6, 2014
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/06/couple-splits-up-to-stay-insured-/12255023/
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The day Linda Drain put baby's breath in her hair and said "I do," she had no idea that government policies would tear her apart from her husband.
But 33 years later, she and her husband, Larry Drain, separated so she could keep her health insurance.
Six months into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Drains are among 162,000 Tennesseans who got caught in a coverage gap. Their household income is too little to qualify for a government subsidy to buy health insurance, and they live in a state not expanding Medicaid.
Their predicament was caused by a series of legal, political and bureaucratic decisions that included the U.S. Supreme Court striking down part of the federal health law, but Larry Drain said he feels to blame.
"In September of last year, I made what looking back on it in retrospect was the worst decision I ever made in my entire life," he said. "I decided to take early retirement from Social Security."
Even though his monthly benefit was significantly less than the paycheck he had been bringing home, the decision changed the eligibility requirements for Linda Drain to continue receiving Supplemental Security Income. If she kept living with her husband, she would lose SSI eligibility, which would make her no longer qualify for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program.
Linda Drain has epilepsy. She has suffered so many seizures she has damaged the nerves in her back. She has spinal stenosis, a condition aggravated by the titanium in her back. Despite having undergone brain surgery to alleviate the seizures, she still has to take expensive medications to prevent them.
She cannot do without insurance. So she has either lived with her mother in Alcoa or stayed in a homeless shelter in Knoxville since the separation to avoid hitting the household income limit.
I am only 58, but since my childhood the change to this country, and the family unit, is staggering.
I remember my parent's friends all looking down their noses at couples living together without, or before, becoming married.
I remember these same people retiring and moving away to Florida - only to divorce, but continue to live together, to maximize their Social Security income.
I remember how my dad would look down on people that divorced just so they could receive welfare. After all, if the father had a job that paid $100 a week, the family would not qualify for the $250 a week welfare check. Just look at what this attitude has done for the unity of the black inner city family, or any poor family.
Now, it is the insurance program that is fracturing our families eve more!
Tom Wilemon, The Tennessean, July 6, 2014
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/06/couple-splits-up-to-stay-insured-/12255023/
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The day Linda Drain put baby's breath in her hair and said "I do," she had no idea that government policies would tear her apart from her husband.
But 33 years later, she and her husband, Larry Drain, separated so she could keep her health insurance.
Six months into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Drains are among 162,000 Tennesseans who got caught in a coverage gap. Their household income is too little to qualify for a government subsidy to buy health insurance, and they live in a state not expanding Medicaid.
Their predicament was caused by a series of legal, political and bureaucratic decisions that included the U.S. Supreme Court striking down part of the federal health law, but Larry Drain said he feels to blame.
"In September of last year, I made what looking back on it in retrospect was the worst decision I ever made in my entire life," he said. "I decided to take early retirement from Social Security."
Even though his monthly benefit was significantly less than the paycheck he had been bringing home, the decision changed the eligibility requirements for Linda Drain to continue receiving Supplemental Security Income. If she kept living with her husband, she would lose SSI eligibility, which would make her no longer qualify for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program.
Linda Drain has epilepsy. She has suffered so many seizures she has damaged the nerves in her back. She has spinal stenosis, a condition aggravated by the titanium in her back. Despite having undergone brain surgery to alleviate the seizures, she still has to take expensive medications to prevent them.
She cannot do without insurance. So she has either lived with her mother in Alcoa or stayed in a homeless shelter in Knoxville since the separation to avoid hitting the household income limit.
I am only 58, but since my childhood the change to this country, and the family unit, is staggering.
I remember my parent's friends all looking down their noses at couples living together without, or before, becoming married.
I remember these same people retiring and moving away to Florida - only to divorce, but continue to live together, to maximize their Social Security income.
I remember how my dad would look down on people that divorced just so they could receive welfare. After all, if the father had a job that paid $100 a week, the family would not qualify for the $250 a week welfare check. Just look at what this attitude has done for the unity of the black inner city family, or any poor family.
Now, it is the insurance program that is fracturing our families eve more!