World News Korner

After 33 years Tennessee couple forced to split up because their Governor refuses to expand Medicaid.

Courtesy of USA Today:

The day Linda Drain put baby's breath in her hair and said "I do," she had no idea that government policies would tear her apart from her husband.

But 33 years later, she and her husband, Larry Drain, separated so she could keep her health insurance.

Six months into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Drains are among 162,000 Tennesseans who got caught in a coverage gap. Their household income is too little to qualify for a government subsidy to buy health insurance, and they live in a state not expanding Medicaid.

Their predicament was caused by a combination of Larry's decision to take early retirement from Social Security, which for some reason rendered his wife ineligible for her Supplemental Security income, and their Governor's decision to turn down the expansion of Medicaid offer3ed by the Affordable Care Act.

Mrs. Drain has epilepsy, and has undergone brain surgery, so her medications are quite expensive. Too expensive for the couple to afford without some assistance.

And Larry Drain is not taking any of this lying down:

Every day, Larry Drain writes a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam asking him to expand Medicaid and posts it on a blog.

"In some ways, it is like a virtual sit-in," he said. "I couldn't go sit in his office, but in some way I need to say, 'I am here. I am going to be here. I'm going to talk about things you don't want talked about.'"

It is inexcusable for this to happen in this country, and doubly so with the remedy so readily available in the form of an expanded Medicaid program.

If Tennessee simply had a Governor who was not a partisan asshole these nice people would not have to end a marriage that neither of them wants to end.

And here I thought the Republicans were the pro-traditional marriage people.

Source