We had health insurance. Bought it when nothing was done on an out- patient basis. So the insurance we bought covered only in-patient hospitalizations.

THEN, the system changed! Everything, now, is done on an out- patient basis. Because of our several pre-existing conditions, we could not purchase new meaningful health insurance to cover all possibilities. Over the next ten years all our reserves went to pay our uncovered bills. Finally, there was no cash to pay ever increasing premiums for the piss-poor insurance we did have. So we lost that!

I was able to secure disability through Social Security in order to have some income. My spouse could not get needed disability because she, for her own health reasons, was never able to work enough "quarters" (as Soc. Sec. calls it) to qualify for Soc. Sec. Disability -- and eventually have Medicare.

Me having other income meant she couldn't qualify for SSI either. Now, for her to have needed monthly medical treatments, Medicaid pays for those treatments only if we (I) am able to pay a "Spend Down" --- a large sum designed by Medicaid to insure we are living in poverty.

Folks, I'm glad to do it. At least she has health insurance --- though many doctors won't accept Medicaid's late and piddling payments.

Having the luxury of being a beatnik and a folksinger for forty years, I learned how to live on nothing---and enjoy the hell out of it too. As I'm fond of saying: "Life is a gas! Sometimes pure oxygen and sometimes a fart! But I continue to breathe deeply whatever wafts my way!"

Like Bill D, I don't expect any politicians to find a meaningful and workable answer to these dilemmas any more than I expect a cure will be found for our main maladies. Life is what it is!

Art