Couple married 33 yrs, separate to keep insurance

[Luddly Neddite]

Couple married 33 years separate so wife can keep 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 series of legal, political and bureaucratic decisions that included the U.S. Supreme Court striking down part of the federal health law, but Larry Drain said he feels to blame.

"In September of last year, I made what looking back on it in retrospect was the worst decision I ever made in my entire life," he said. "I decided to take early retirement from Social Security."

Even though his monthly benefit was significantly less than the paycheck he had been bringing home, the decision changed the eligibility requirements for Linda Drain to continue receiving Supplemental Security Income. If she kept living with her husband, she would lose SSI eligibility, which would make her no longer qualify for TennCare.

Linda Drain has epilepsy. She has suffered so many seizures she has damaged the nerves in her back. She has spinal stenosis, a condition aggravated by the titanium in her back. Despite having undergone brain surgery to alleviate the seizures, she still has to take expensive medications to prevent them.

She cannot do without insurance. So she has either lived with her mother in Alcoa or stayed in a homeless shelter in Knoxville since the separation to avoid hitting the household income limit.

Tennessee Couple Larry And Linda Drain Forced To Separate After 33 Years To Keep Insurance

"We cussed and discussed and prayed and screamed and hollered and looked at all the options, and we figured out for the month of January, we would have $30 to live on for the entire month. In February it would get worse, and in March it would get worse than that. So on Dec. 26, after 33 years of marriage, we decided to separate," Larry explained.

"We've been apart now for what seems like forever, but I guess about six months. She's still looking for a place to live," Larry said. "When you're talking about an income based on disability, housing is almost impossible to find. We're caught in a perfect storm."

The couple described to HuffPost Live the severe emotional toll the separation has taken on them. They've lost not only the physical help they depend on one another for, but also the mental stability that comes with having a lifelong partner.

"You don't realize how much you miss each other until you don't see each other. You don't realize how much you worry until the other person is not there," Larry said. "You don't realize how many different things are important to you that aren't so important when you're all by yourself."

Larry now writes daily letters to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, begging him to expand Medicaid. On the morning of his interview with HuffPost Live, Larry wrote his 45th letter. With no response yet, the couple faces an uncertain future. Larry said he may eventually be forced to become homeless if nothing changes. The idea terrifies Linda.

"I would hate to see my husband out there away from home, knowing he's at this exhaustion point, and I could do nothing, and I would want to hold him and have him with me," Linda said.

Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason - because they hate that there's a black guy in the WH.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Couple married 33 years separate so wife can keep insurance

Caught between two cracks

Federal

The Social Security Administration allows a couple to earn up to $2,249 a month in wages if someone receives Supplemental Security Income. However, the couple cannot make more than $1,102 when the income is not from wages. Even though Larry Drain's Social Security retirement check is significantly less than his old wages, his new and lower household income put them over the threshold. Linda Drain would have lost her SSI had she continued living with him — a scenario that would have caused her to lose TennCare coverage. These differing income formulas were in place before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

State

The Drains made too little to qualify for a subsidy to help them buy insurance on healthcare.gov, the federal exchange. However, both would have qualified for TennCare while still living together if Tennessee had expanded its Medicaid program. Now, Linda Drain lives with her mother to keep getting TennCare. Larry Drain is uninsured. The Affordable Care Act would have basically required all states to expand Medicaid to people who fall within the Drains' income range, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that provision of the law.

People insured because of the Affordable Care Act

• 1 million young adults between 19 and 26

• 8 million who bought coverage on federal or state exchanges

• 5 million who purchased coverage directly from an insurer

• 6 million who enrolled in Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program

• Total: 20 million

— New England Journal of Medicine

A Medicaid gap

People left out

• Nationally: 4,831,580

• South: 3,800,940

• Tennessee: 161,650

Southerners left out

Ethnic breakdown:

• White: 40 percent

• Black: 31 percent

• Hispanic: 24 percent

• Other: 5 percent

— Kaiser Family Foundation

Left out

The poorest people in Tennessee get no health plan coverage or subsidies toward buying it from the Affordable Care Act because the state is not expanding its Medicaid program.

• Individual making less than $11,490: Nothing

• Couple making less than $15,510: Nothing

• Family of three making less than $19,530: Nothing

• Family of four making less than $23,550: Nothing

• Family of five making less than $27,570: Nothing

• Family of six making less than $31,590: Nothing

— www.healthcare.gov

 

[Pennywise]

Couple married 33 years separate so wife can keep insurance



Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason - because they hate that there's a black guy in the WH.

Wow, you've cracked The Code.

You'd better empty your drool cup before it spills into your diaper.

 

[Gracie]

Actually....hubby and I divorced for different reasons but mostly it was because we couldn't get any help being MARRIED. I will refrain from going into detail since this is the net and some things just shouldn't be spoken about. However, we still stayed together. Just weren't hitched. Then, when he got really sick and almost died from sepsis and pnuemonia...the vultures started circling. So...when he got well, we rehitched.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Gracie, I know a couple in AZ who divorced for this reason. Now, though, the birth defect of a governor changed her "mind" and they're remarried.

We will be seeing a lot more of this. As usual, the pubs want to hurt the poorest among us and, as usual, they'll vote for more pubs. They never learn but that doesn't mean they don't take the welfare the blue states pay to them.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason

Had ObamaCare never passed in the first place this wouldn't have happened, but we can't expect the OP to be anything other than dishonest and dishonorable.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason

Had ObamaCare never passed in the first place this wouldn't have happened, but we can't expect the OP to be anything other than dishonest and dishonorable.

Yep, you're right. And 73-78% would not be happy with their insurance, more people would not be insured than at any other time before and the Rs would would have to find some other way to screw over the poor. Best of all, RWs here would not be able to lie about their own experience.

(That was an incredibly stupid thing you just wrote. I mean, that's among the dumbest you've ever written.)

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason

Had ObamaCare never passed in the first place this wouldn't have happened, but we can't expect the OP to be anything other than dishonest and dishonorable.

Yep, you're right. And 73-78% would not be happy with their insurance, more people would not be insured than at any other time before and the Rs would would have to find some other way to screw over the poor.

85% of Americans had health insurance at the time ObamaCare was passed and the vast majority of those people were happy with their plans. Keep spreading the statist propaganda and lies, Dudley. Goebbels would be so proud of you.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Luddy, I want you to apologize for calling the Governor a "Birth Defect".

 

[Youch]

Couple married 33 years separate so wife can keep 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 series of legal, political and bureaucratic decisions that included the U.S. Supreme Court striking down part of the federal health law, but Larry Drain said he feels to blame.

"In September of last year, I made what looking back on it in retrospect was the worst decision I ever made in my entire life," he said. "I decided to take early retirement from Social Security."

Even though his monthly benefit was significantly less than the paycheck he had been bringing home, the decision changed the eligibility requirements for Linda Drain to continue receiving Supplemental Security Income. If she kept living with her husband, she would lose SSI eligibility, which would make her no longer qualify for TennCare.

Linda Drain has epilepsy. She has suffered so many seizures she has damaged the nerves in her back. She has spinal stenosis, a condition aggravated by the titanium in her back. Despite having undergone brain surgery to alleviate the seizures, she still has to take expensive medications to prevent them.

She cannot do without insurance. So she has either lived with her mother in Alcoa or stayed in a homeless shelter in Knoxville since the separation to avoid hitting the household income limit.

Tennessee Couple Larry And Linda Drain Forced To Separate After 33 Years To Keep Insurance

"We cussed and discussed and prayed and screamed and hollered and looked at all the options, and we figured out for the month of January, we would have $30 to live on for the entire month. In February it would get worse, and in March it would get worse than that. So on Dec. 26, after 33 years of marriage, we decided to separate," Larry explained.

"We've been apart now for what seems like forever, but I guess about six months. She's still looking for a place to live," Larry said. "When you're talking about an income based on disability, housing is almost impossible to find. We're caught in a perfect storm."

The couple described to HuffPost Live the severe emotional toll the separation has taken on them. They've lost not only the physical help they depend on one another for, but also the mental stability that comes with having a lifelong partner.

"You don't realize how much you miss each other until you don't see each other. You don't realize how much you worry until the other person is not there," Larry said. "You don't realize how many different things are important to you that aren't so important when you're all by yourself."

Larry now writes daily letters to Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, begging him to expand Medicaid. On the morning of his interview with HuffPost Live, Larry wrote his 45th letter. With no response yet, the couple faces an uncertain future. Larry said he may eventually be forced to become homeless if nothing changes. The idea terrifies Linda.

"I would hate to see my husband out there away from home, knowing he's at this exhaustion point, and I could do nothing, and I would want to hold him and have him with me," Linda said.

Republicans are doing this to innocent people for only one reason - because they hate that there's a black guy in the WH.

What a emotional and moronic conclusion.

Perhaps there are people, non-haters of course, that actually believe in the definition of words? Words mean things, in case you missed that point. To water down definitions, is to water down standards, both of which is the desired consequences of the liberal agenda.

Only 2.3% of America is gay, yet the lib media focuses so much attention to this abnormality. Logically, would they not then expend a relative equal portion of their dollars and time on, say, supporting the 2nd Amendment? Of course not, because one is an emotional distraction, and the other is a Constitutional Right.