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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2005Health care under attack in TennesseeMemphis, Tenn.--The struggle to save TennCare continues. TennCare is Tennessee’s state program for access to health care for the poor, uninsured and underinsured, and Gov. Phil Bredesen is gutting it. Over 200,000 people are in the process of having their health coverage taken from them, with more likely to follow, and severe restrictions have been placed on the prescriptions anyone can get. Hundreds, maybe thousands, have been sentenced to death by our Democratic governor. Disability and civil rights activists, HIV patients and health care advocates have spearheaded a campaign to stop this, including organizing speakouts for people on TennCare. There’s massive outrage about balancing the state’s budget on the backs of the sick and the poor. In Nashville, a sit-in is still going on at Gov. Bredesen’s office demanding an end to the cuts. The protesters have received messages of support from all over the country, in part because people in every state recognize that the poor and the sick are on the chopping block everywhere. Health care in this country is in crisis. This system is decaying and is taking humanity with it, unless we succeed in abolishing it and creating a new human society. --Franklin Dmitryev * * * TWO STORIES FROM THE TENNCARE SPEAKOUTS... My daughter is 34. She couldn’t come because she’s in bed with kidney failure. She has congestive heart failure. She’s blind in one eye and she’s a Type 1 diabetic. She was cut from TennCare and never got a notice. She went Aug. 1 to pick up her prescriptions. They told her they wouldn’t pay for it. This is her medicine to stay alive. I called our State Rep. Barbara Cooper, who called the head of TennCare. He said there was nothing he could do. I called numbers Ms. Cooper gave me. On TennCare, nothing’s easy. You can’t get an appointment today. You have to wait until Aug. 23. Her medicine stopped Aug. 1. She can’t see her doctors anymore. What is she going to do? I want to know if the governor of Tennessee is going to sign her death certificate! I want to know why she doesn’t have a right to live! Take care of your own people! She tried to get Social Security. They told her she was able-bodied. I went to the doctor with her. He stayed 10 minutes, didn’t even weigh her. Where is she going to go? Because she’s not able to work, she doesn’t get any assistance. So my husband and I have to take care of her. But where is she going to get these two shots for $200? And this bottle of medicine is $600. Her latest prescriptions she got today, I don’t have any way to get them. One is to keep the fluid out of her lungs from the heart failure. Somebody’s got to care. She’s my daughter. I love her. --White mother * * * I’m here on behalf of my daughter, a young engineer. She did all the right things for 10 years, paying the maximum every year. However, she was struck down by multiple sclerosis and her coverage was withdrawn by a Fortune 500 company--not much empathy from that source. My heart is torn by all these people here, not only my child. I care for every human being in Tennessee. A nation as strong as this nation, why couldn’t we divert our resources into health care rather than destructive ventures? We have had numerous hospital visits, and for the first time in my life, we have been unable to pay the bills. I have negotiated with the hospitals and they were kind enough to reduce the bills so that I could pay. But I’ve been dehumanized for the first time. She’s on 13 medications, she has multiple sclerosis, she has phlebitis and some other problems. She’s totally disabled and requires 24-hour care, for which we pay. She has an income of $1,400 a month on Social Security disability. Not only is she physically totally disabled, there is severe cognitive degeneration. I appeal to the legislators and the governor to rethink the fact that human beings’ lives are being destroyed. --Black father |
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