Posted by: thepinetree on 03/01/2013 06:25 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 03/01/2013 06:25 PM
Expires: 01/01/2018 12:00 AM
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Tragedy in Calaveras County. Letter to the Editor from Jean Fox
San Andreas, CA....The miracle didn’t come. Sadly, I watched the patients leave the Mountain Oaks Health Center yesterday, with tears streaming down their faces, knowing this was the last medical care they would receive for the foreseeable future. They were friends and neighbors, mostly in their late 50’s and early 60’s, without medical insurance. I watched the dedicated staff, wipe their eyes, quickly, so they could take care of the next patient, only to break down again, as the next patient thanked them for their selfless sacrifices and hugged them good bye, for the last time. Approximately 2000 patients, friends, neighbors, hardworking locals are now without basic medical care that helped all of us be healthier. My 62 year old friend in choir, that could no longer pay nearly $600.00 per month for insurance, has no place to turn. The people at the local fast food place, the grocery clerk, the pizza maker, the local plumber, handyman, school aide, and cafeteria service person, sometimes working 2 jobs, to pay rent and feed their children, have no place to go, for that bad cold, or flu, or diabetes. Without treatment, they will work, as long as they can, spreading the contagious illnesses, or become another tax payer “burden”, when their treatable conditions, become life threatening...
This isn’t about politics, or shouldn’t be. I’m not for democrats or republicans views, It is about people care. The volunteers at the clinic, saw this enormous need to care for the local population. Some of them gave up good paying jobs, lost their homes, and sold their valuables, to help fund the clinic. Without local support, such as the $500,000. Grant the county got but didn’t share 1 penny with this valuable resource, without community fund raisers, or the services of grant writers, they simply could not pay the rent, and the huge mal practice insurance costs, etc., to keep the doors open. Sooner, rather than later, we will all be impacted by this loss. The hospital will have a lot more, ER visits, and hospitalizations, from lack of basic affordable medical care in the community. Most of these people will never be able to pay those hospital bills. When people with treatable conditions become too sick to work, they will end up on public assistance.
I don’t know how to write grants, or set up fund raisers, if I did, I would have for this essential community service. I do know, that my own health insurance premiums, for me alone are approaching $600.00 a month. That basic plan is going up every 3 to 6 months at a rate, that will be nearly $2000.00 per month by the time I’m 64. Yes, that is right, plus, my deductible is $6500.00, per year! In today’s money, I must spend more than $12000.00, per year, before my health insurance will start paying. I thank God, every day, that I am healthy, have a small business that affords me the ability to pay for health insurance, for now, but what about those that don’t, like my 62 year old friend, or the middle aged Mom that just made me a taco?
Josie, Kathy, Mountain Oaks Volunteer Staff, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your selfless sacrifices, the care and the compassion, that we are all going to miss.
Jean Fox, President DRE Lic. 00841507
Fox Realty and Management, Inc.
10 Nove Way
Valley Springs, Ca. 95252
209-772-2070
www.foxrealtyandmanagement.com
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