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Couple married 33 years separate so wife can keep insurance
Tennessee Couple Larry And Linda Drain Forced To Separate After 33 Years To 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.
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.