o.k., as you have mentioned me (I certainly opened myself up for it)

[Guest guest]

I live on $701.00 in the most expensive state in the Union. Few doctors

take Medi-Cal (Medicaid here) or GHPP (Genetically Handicapped per

sons Program), which is now part of Medi-Cal, even if one has other in

surance first. Am I and my friends awaiting transplant and whom are

either not married or are widowed as am I to " go out and work? " I have

no resources. I have a close friend with cf who is dying, in part because

he lives on a similar income in proportion to his state's cost, and quite

actually has no money for food and has lost so much muscle mass that

he has now developed peripheral neuropathy. Money for food would

help him, but he has no way out of his situation. I grant that the middle

class is being tortured by this administration, but every person with cf

or any other serious and expensive chronic illness, and every family with it,

faces poverty--until death, and we are the only industrialized

country in which this is the case. I have friends who taught in our public

schools all their lives, retired and lost $200.00 to $400.00 per month

because their retirement funds had invested in the stock market, and you can

imagine the rest; many of these people, as I did, worked all

their lives, never imagined poverty at their doors, and now are exper

iencing it for the first time.

We now have almost no services for the mentally ill who might well

qualify for SSI were there a case manager to help them, but who eek

out an existence on $49.00 per month, no general assistance, no shel

ters, and decreasing numbers of group homes--and unless one is very

rich, forget nursing homes--Medicaid is thinking of no longer funding

a person for them, and again--if only we had what congress has! The

military are returning home to almost nothing in benefits--I have an adult

" kid " in the US Army; I know. Some wealthy counties do have some programs,

but those programs are dying like flies.

Oregon was heroic in obtaining a Medicaid waiver for middle class in

comes in addition to those who receive either assistance (rare) or SSI.

Vermont has state-funded medical care as does Hawaii, but in general,

that's it. For example, if I moved to Texas, I would get NO money for

meds--less rent, yes, lower food costs, yes, but not even an enzyme.

These public programs created by Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and

are scheduled to be defunded. And this will effect every family

with cf as employers no longer insure their employees, and if they do,

do not insure the families--and there are bills proposing just that moving

through congress now. And the " middle income group " is fast disap

pearing as most of us become poor except for the super rich.

Doctors are leaving this country for Canada, Aurstralia, New Zealand,

Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the UK and Ireland. And the one-third

of Medicare dollars that used to go annually for the education of doctors

disappeared years ago--there are fewer and fewer doctors--of all kinds.

And, anyone over 40 is terrified of having his or her job " defunded "

because of the person's AGE!

Social Security and its programs are not public; they are earned by the

individual, and the income qualification for those who receive public

funds: AFDC ( " Welfare-to-work " ) does not matter as the pprogram can

not pay for childcare; SSI now requires an income so low that even if

one did get Medicaid on it, it would be hard to find a shelter and a clinic.

What you are thinking of is the programs that existed from the late thir

ties through the 1960's--not now!

Having spent my life in social and medical service, I am in a good posi

tion to know. When I was in college in the 1950's I paid 25 cents a visit

to my cf clinic and $1.00 a day when in hospital and the meds were

free--find me a place like that today--or the equivalent!

I fear that our cf friends of all ages and other chronically ill of all ages

are doomed; it is like a form of eugenics. And when I here the Presid

ent of this country wanting to fund medical care, retirement and housing

for those in another nation, etc., I am embarrassed as an American!

" Something to be outraged about, "

n Rojas, who notes that this is not a flame war; this is about dang

er to our selves, our children and our grandchildren, some of whom are

in the military NOW.