Down the rabbit hole

Alice was a farmer’s daughter from the Midwest. The youngest in her family, she fed the chickens, weeded and went to a special ed class. Alice grew up secure, loved, happy and useful.

After her parents passed away, she lived with an older sister, worked part-time for about 20-30 hours per week. Her life continued to be productive and happy until the yawning pit of the rabbit hole opened up.

She had a small lesion appear between her nose and lip. It didn’t look unsightly or hurt. It grew and grew and became sore and ugly. Home remedies would not work. She was turned away without treatment.

2014 was going to be the worst of years for Alice. She was going to tumble down an endless abyss. She had cancer, basal cell carcinoma, which required micrographic surgery.

Alice tumbled into “not ever land.” Cancer can’t wait. This helpless middle-aged woman did not qualify for assistance because she earned only $9,000 per year. Under the Affordable Care Act, she had to earn more than $12,500 per year to be insured under Obamacare.

She did apply for Medicaid and was denied as she earned too much, was not over 65, disabled or a child. For what did she qualify? The federally facilitated Health Care Marketplace would require her to pay $134 per month, fulfill a deductible of $3,950 and a co-pay between $35 and $50.

There are a host of helpless little rabbits tumbling into this vortex. Just ordinary quiet folk who work all lives, do not work for the government and accept no handouts, but are now faced with being too poor for government’s the Affordable Care Act and too rich for Medicaid.

In the bad old days, a person with a lower income could get surgical treatment and be charged according to his income and be given time to pay off his bills.

Winnifred Storli

Kalispell