A Reminder of What We are Fighting For in Health Reform (Even if its imperfect)

[JPZenger]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/01/palmyra_student_seeks_help_for.html



Excerpts:

"Student seeks help for his mother, who has cancer; she wants to make sure he can go to college.

Linda Miller lies on the couch of her Main Street home in Palmyra, wrapped in an old sleeping bag.
Her son Michael, 17, sitting next to her, smiles shyly while petting one of the family’s cats.
Miller’s hair and teeth are falling out from chemotherapy. She is exhausted all the time, she said, and her back hurts horribly from the cancer which has spread from her colon to her kidneys. Her voice is strong still, however, especially when she talks about her hopes for Michael.

“He doesn’t like to see me struggling with cancer and paying bills,” she said. “He wants to go to college and worries about leaving me here.” His dad committed suicide when he was 11, he wrote. The creditors keep calling. She’s all he has left. “I hate standing by and watching her worry about bills and such when she needs to devote her energy to getting well,” he wrote. “I can’t stand watching my mom worry herself into an early death.”

Michael works summers and over holiday breaks at Hersheypark to bring in some money. He has offered to quit school and work full time, but his mother will have none of it. “Their relationship is all about seeing this kid fly,” a family friend said. “He’s held up his end of the bargain.”

Michael is a straight A student with an aptitude for math and science whose grades at Palmyra High School could be enough to get him into a top college. He has applied to Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and other engineering schools, if he can get a scholarship. Wally Landis, pastor of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren where Michael is a member of the youth group, said Michael is “a gentleman, in the top 5 percent of his class, wooed by top schools” who has had to deal with a lot for someone his age.

She first fought lung cancer 10 years ago, and was so ill that hospice was called in. She had a stroke. After her cancer returned two years ago, Miller said, she had to stop working at Wert Bookbinding, where she was on the assembly line for 11 years. She applied for Social Security disability but only started receiving those benefits in November, and the payments were not retroactive. Making financial matters even tougher, when Michael turns 18 next month, he will stop receiving Social Security benefits.

But she says, “I’m so far in debt, it’s pathetic. I can never get out.” She used her credit cards for food and other necessities, she said. According to Michael, his mom doesn’t smile much anymore. Even cards offering her well wishes and prayers might make her feel better, he said. “I just want her to get back on her feet and for everything to go away,” he said.

HOW TO HELP:
A fund has been set up to help the Millers through the Palmyra Area Cooperating Churches. Send donations to: PACC Crisis Fund, 131 N. Railroad St., Palmyra, PA 17078."

[JPZenger]

1. Social Security Used to Help Children in College Who Had a Deceased Parent

Social Security used to provide financial support for college students under age 21 who had a deceased parent who had paid into the system. Ronnie Raygun ended that. As described above, the assistance stops at age 18.

[JPZenger]

2. I've come to the conclusion ...

I've come to the conclusion that most people are basically good ... except for the people who comment at the end of articles on newspaper websites.