Just to clarify, Medicaid is available to the disabled (if you are not already receiving Medicare), to pregnant women in poverty, to children in poverty, and to limited income families with children who meet the state's eligibility requirements for that state(SC's) Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
Another point to keep in mind. You can only receive Social Security benefits if you have earned W2 income at some point in your life, and if you earned a sufficient Social Security credits, which is 10 years in order to qualify for benefits. This means that if you earned only 1099 income, cash income or any other type of income during your working life, you are ineligible to receive Social Security benefits in old age.
Some elderly in the US do not qualify to receive Medicare or Social Security. However if you become homeless, and you are elderly(65 or older), then the good news is that you may be eligible to receive healthcare through medicaid, food stamps through SNAP and Supplemental Income. But since you are homeless, and you mostly likely do not have transportation. . . or any other resources to help you locate a medicaid provider. . . it will be difficult to find out about those resources, let alone apply to receive them.
Monday, September 27, 2010
14.4% = 46,804,031 people
This is the number of people living in poverty in the US. That is roughly 1 in 7 people living on less than $903.00 per month. The number of people living without health insurance has increased as well, to 54,000.000 as of 2010.
I am one of those living without health insurance, after working as a W2 employee for over 20 years. I have a college degree, a family and high cholesterol. That high cholesterol, which is treated with medication that I pay for out of pocket, keeps me from purchasing health insurance from an insurance company. I am 46 years old, too young for medicare, and since I own some assets, like a car, I do not qualify for medicaid. Also, my county/state does not offer health care services through the health department. Many people seem to think that you can just go to the health department for healthcare. That is not true. Also, in my city/county, the hospital does not accept patients without medical insurance. Piedmont medical center is the local hospital, and they will transport you anywhere you want to go if you have a medical issue, but they will not treat you at their facility if you do not have health insurance. So now Piedmont wants to build a hospital in the community where I live, Fort Mill, SC. I hope that this construction never happens. There are a number of poor people in Fort Mill, SC.
I recently met a man in Fort Mill with an abscessed tooth, and he has no insurance. He is close to retirement age, but does qualify for medicare. He may not have any history of W2 income, so that would prevent him from any Social Security assistance, so he may just be out of luck. Of course you can die from an abscessed tooth, but of course the hospital in our area couldn't care less. By the way, there is only ONE medicaid dentist in York County, SC and it is going to take a long time to get this man an appointment.
I'm a little angry, a little upset and bitter. Shouldn't we all be?
I am one of those living without health insurance, after working as a W2 employee for over 20 years. I have a college degree, a family and high cholesterol. That high cholesterol, which is treated with medication that I pay for out of pocket, keeps me from purchasing health insurance from an insurance company. I am 46 years old, too young for medicare, and since I own some assets, like a car, I do not qualify for medicaid. Also, my county/state does not offer health care services through the health department. Many people seem to think that you can just go to the health department for healthcare. That is not true. Also, in my city/county, the hospital does not accept patients without medical insurance. Piedmont medical center is the local hospital, and they will transport you anywhere you want to go if you have a medical issue, but they will not treat you at their facility if you do not have health insurance. So now Piedmont wants to build a hospital in the community where I live, Fort Mill, SC. I hope that this construction never happens. There are a number of poor people in Fort Mill, SC.
I recently met a man in Fort Mill with an abscessed tooth, and he has no insurance. He is close to retirement age, but does qualify for medicare. He may not have any history of W2 income, so that would prevent him from any Social Security assistance, so he may just be out of luck. Of course you can die from an abscessed tooth, but of course the hospital in our area couldn't care less. By the way, there is only ONE medicaid dentist in York County, SC and it is going to take a long time to get this man an appointment.
I'm a little angry, a little upset and bitter. Shouldn't we all be?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
5 days and counting
A quick update on the fiction contest that my friend and I are working on. Only 5 days left and I'm still working with 5 paragraphs and part of an outline. It isn't very good and I have this terrible habit of editing as I go, so the more I write the shorter the story gets. Just pray. . . that may be my only chance at finishing this thing.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
about last night. . .the morning after
Guess I should start with a little background info for this post to make sense. I have been working with a friend on some photography projects recently, and my husband (a pro photog) has been mentoring me a bit with my photography work. I've had some success with the publication of a few photos in a magazine, so of course the success has gone to my head.
So recently when my friend mentioned my husband doing some work for a local political candidate, I took the project to my husband and he turned it down. His work is more "sports action" and "portraiture", so he wasn't really interested in a photojournalism assignment. However, photojournalism is my bag so I have asked him to mentor me through this assignment. I just need some help with the technical stuff, lighting, exposure. . .post production. . .I'm a bit needy.
Ok, so that's the background. Last night was my first event for this political candidate gig, so we attended the local NAACP awards banquet for their 2010 Freedom Fund. It turned out to be a fun and informative event and hopefully was a big fundraiser for the local chapter. I met several very talented and interesting people, walked away with good contact info, and learned about some of the community work that chapter members are involved in around the city.
Cut to the next day: Thought that I would check the local newspaper website to read the event coverage. There was another photographer at the event, but she must have been working for the NAACP since the paper did not have any photo coverage for the event. That seemed odd to me. So I found the article, it was about 5 sentences with the list of award winners. There was nothing about their contributions to the community, or any of their bio information. Again, seemed odd to me. So I scrolled down to look for any reader comments, and then it hit me.
I live in the south.
The event was attended by prominent citizens and public servants from one of the largest cities in the southeast, yet there was no coverage in the paper. However the readers did have quite a bit of hate for not only the organization, but for the people which it represents. One comment was so offensive that the newspaper had to remove it. Keep in mind that this article was 4 sentences, just stuck to the who, what and where of the story, and then listed award recipients by name and title only.
I am ashamed to live in the south.
So recently when my friend mentioned my husband doing some work for a local political candidate, I took the project to my husband and he turned it down. His work is more "sports action" and "portraiture", so he wasn't really interested in a photojournalism assignment. However, photojournalism is my bag so I have asked him to mentor me through this assignment. I just need some help with the technical stuff, lighting, exposure. . .post production. . .I'm a bit needy.
Ok, so that's the background. Last night was my first event for this political candidate gig, so we attended the local NAACP awards banquet for their 2010 Freedom Fund. It turned out to be a fun and informative event and hopefully was a big fundraiser for the local chapter. I met several very talented and interesting people, walked away with good contact info, and learned about some of the community work that chapter members are involved in around the city.
Cut to the next day: Thought that I would check the local newspaper website to read the event coverage. There was another photographer at the event, but she must have been working for the NAACP since the paper did not have any photo coverage for the event. That seemed odd to me. So I found the article, it was about 5 sentences with the list of award winners. There was nothing about their contributions to the community, or any of their bio information. Again, seemed odd to me. So I scrolled down to look for any reader comments, and then it hit me.
I live in the south.
The event was attended by prominent citizens and public servants from one of the largest cities in the southeast, yet there was no coverage in the paper. However the readers did have quite a bit of hate for not only the organization, but for the people which it represents. One comment was so offensive that the newspaper had to remove it. Keep in mind that this article was 4 sentences, just stuck to the who, what and where of the story, and then listed award recipients by name and title only.
I am ashamed to live in the south.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Inaugural post!
My very new friend has issued a challenge and I am going to take her up on that challenge. My friend wants to enter the Writers’ Workshop Short Fiction Contest and the deadline is August 30, 2010.
She is planning to submit a short chapter from a book she has been working on for several years, while I am planning to write something new from an existing outline. The challenge will be to come up with 5000 words that make sense and can hold someone’s attention for more than a minute.
My new friend is a seasoned writer, PR and marketing professional. I am an amateur writer with a liberal arts education, a lot of pluck and bravado.
So that’s it, the challenge, the deadline and the participants.
Cheers!
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