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Edited on Thu Jan-04-07 02:48 AM by SoCalDem
My friend sheepishly handed me a letter tonight.
It was a resignation letter for her team from our bowling league.
My league is a 30x5 mix of all ages, races, income levels. We have a kid who just turned 17, and we have a few octogenarians. we have married couples, dating couples and a fair share who are "looking".
i mention these details because our league is an anomaly in this day and age. The league has been in existence since 1988, and from this eclectic bunch, we have had marriages---kids who first met in the playroom, and are now dating---a few tawdry affairs--- and horrors..even a murder in the family of one couple.. These people came together as strangers, and have formed life-long bonds, so when something bad happens to one, it affects us all.
There's not a week that goes by. that there's not a card for someone going around...a death in the family, an illness, a wedding, a baby..
but I digress..
My friend and her husband's team consists of their married son & his wife, and their friend. They got a letter from their insurance company today informing them that her insurance premium has increased to $1,400.00 a month..just for HER.. She had the AUDACITY to get cancer a few years back, and the treatment that saved her life ended up ruining her kidneys. She is on dialysis , and a transplant list (although she is on it for her husband's peace of mind, because the doctors have more or less told her she won't get one)..
Their one night out to hang out with friends, see their grown kids, and bowl has been snatched away from them because like she said..."we just can't afford it anymore"..
These are people who worked hard all their lives, raised their kids,don't smoke or drink. Apparently he's self employed,(minimal health coverage) and her medical coverage is one she was able to convert when she had to quit working.
They worked hard all their lives and have a house (modest, and nearly paid for), one car, and thought they might enjoy a nice retirement, UNTIL she got sick. She's 58 and he's 60.
I could tell that she had been crying today (who wouldn't?). Her husband is worried sick about her health, and now they have to give up their one "fun" thing they had left.
The irony is that if they were German, British, Canadian, French......well , you know what I was going to add at this point..
It's extortion, pure and simple. Pay $1400 a month or you die.
(or they could sell their house, use up the money for her treatments until the money runs out, and then go on welfare.)
Middle-class boomers are an endangered species...
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