Heart breaking for a couple... advice requested

[jschmidt]

I know a couple who is going through a rough time. The husband, nearing 60, has been out of the work force for nearly a decade, due to medical issues. He gets financial aid for him because of this, but it doesn't even cover the medication he needs to survive. The wife, nearing 60 as well, works between 60 and 80 hours a week, trying to make ends meet, still finds themselves going backwards constantly. Due to the medications needed for her husband, she feels trapped, and cannot afford to lose her job, or even look for another job, not to mention, she emphatically feels she cannot get anything that will pay what she gets now. Oh yeah ... she also just had a heart attack ... NO insurance.

My heart breaks for these people. They don't live extravagantly - no car payment (only 1 car), modest rent ($700 a month I believe), and virtually no room to cut anything out of the budget.

So, the question for you fine folks is this: If you were in their situation, what would you do? Please, think hard and let me know - I want to help as much as I can, and give advice.

[try2bfrugal]

My first thought was what kind of medication is the husband on and are there any holistic alternatives that could help like a DASH diet for high blood pressure or a low glycemic diet for diabetes.

Is the husband on SSI? Can he qualify for food stamps? Medicaid? Low income housing? Are they taking advantage of every possible program available to them? High risk insurance pool?

Can the husband do any kind of work from home? Even if he did surveys for gift cards and stuff from fiverr and mechanical turk he could probably bring in an extra few thousand a year.

Can they take in a roommate to help with the rent?

[jschmidt]

fiverr and mechanical turk? what are those things? He isn't a candidate for taking any holistic alternative medications with the issues he has, and the wife is dead set against taking any help from the government. i hope she changes her mind, considering their situation.

[decemberlov]

I know around here there are a few income based apartments and town houses and you do not have to be on welfare or any other government program to qualify. You just have to prove how much money you make.

Also, I don't know what kind of medication he is on but I do have an older gentleman that comes in once a month to fax his prescriptions to a co. in Canada that he says is much cheaper...

[try2bfrugal]

Fiverr and mechanical turk are online sites where you do small tasks for small amounts of money. It isn't much per hour but it pays more than watching TV making zero dollars per hour. If he can drive or get to stores there are secret shopper jobs posted at places like http://mysteryshop.org/.

Slickdeals has an ongoing thread where posters report what they got in the mail today (http://slickdeals.net/f/777982-What-I-Got-Free-in-the-Mail-Today-Please-keep-OT-Chat-posts-limited?&page=378). They take surveys, enter contests, send for free stuff, and little things like that to make extra money. If you enter enough free contests you can actually make money doing that either by getting money or gift cards as prizes or selling the stuff you win on eBay. You have to enter enough contests and Facebook give aways so that the odds are every month or so that you are bound to win a certain percent.

Fatwallet has forums for free things and making money like that, too. One guy paid his college tuition just from free after rebate programs. He made the money from selling the free items on eBay and getting cash back on the purchase from using rewards cards and buying through affiliate links where the affiliate marketers share their commissions with their customers.

Then there is always blogging and putting Adsense or some other ad program on a blog. Blogspot sites are free to set up so all it would costs to set up is a topic and his time.

If the wife pays any sales taxes, payroll or property taxes via her rent then government programs aren't charity they are a return on some of the money she has put in to the system to date through paying taxes.

[Gardenarian]

This so very sad. Do they have a social worker? Is there a senior advocacy person/group in your area?
I think they should also contact United Way (http://apps.unitedway.org/myuw/) - it's help for people who need it. They can help them manage their finances and tell them what benefits may be available to them (food stamps? medical?)

Thank you for caring, Jschmidt!

[Miss Cellane]

I wish they'd re-think taking money from the government. That's one place I'd like my tax dollars to go--to people who are struggling and who need the assistance.

They should also try contacting the manufacturers of all his medications. Many drug companies have programs to reduce the cost of their medications to people who can't afford them. I assume they've also looked into the $4 program at Walmart and some other stores?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Well in a few years at least they will be eligible for early collection on retirement programs like Social Security and they should. Probably eligible now to tap any retirement savings without penalty but I get the feeling they don't have much in that way (only the professional middle class really does). Until then prescriptions in order of legality I guess: some of the Walmart prescriptions are supposed to be affordable (I know, I know), there's mail in and online prescriptions, there's Canada (though I think that is being cracked down on now or soon maybe as part of Obamacare) and then there's Mexico and going over the border to Mexico might be the best option. It probably could save a lot. They should definitely try generic medicines if they exist and they aren't already taking them. It's possible cost of living could be reduced even more, but that pobably requires moving etc., and it makes no sense unless you have another job lined up and sometimes it still doesn't make sense (ie wanting to be around friends and family). One could suggest something like taking in a boarder, but besides being somewhat risky, if you are renting you often don't have the space anyway unless it's a multi-bedroom house, and anyway subletting is often illegal or against the lease. Probably various cheap ways to get food (like food pantries and others, I've seen food charities that will sell you months worth of food (if it is preserved etc.) for $100), so they can throw the money at medicines instead.

[Lainey]

...prescriptions in order of legality I guess: some of the Walmart prescriptions are supposed to be affordable (I know, I know), there's mail in and online prescriptions, there's Canada (though I think that is being cracked down on now or soon maybe as part of Obamacare) ...

cite please? I haven't seen this as part of the new health care reform but maybe I missed something. Also it's been illegal to import prescription drugs from Canada since the GWBush administration, supposedly for "safety" reasons, but of course it was a gift to US big pharma. All those Canadians taking those un-safe drugs, dropping like flies ....


Otherwise, if one of them is a military veteran, it would make sense to check with the VA for any possible benefit.

[mamalatte]

Sometimes individual drug companies have their own program to provide free drugs to people who need them. You need to contact the drug company directly.

Here is a better description: "Patient assistance programs (PAPs) are voluntarily offered by all major drug companies—including, Merck (http://www.merck.com/merckhelps) and Pfizer (http://www.pfizerhelpfulanswers.com/pages/misc//Default.aspx) —to provide prescriptions for free, or at reduced prices, to the under- or uninsured. At least 150 drug manufacturers currently provide more than 250 programs for many of the most frequently prescribed drugs." http://www.agingresearch.org/content/article/detail/2328

This website has a search engine that it says will help patients to find such programs; you can search by drug or manufacturer: http://www.rxassist.org/patients

[redfox]

I'd suggest they go to their local Senior Center for support & resources.

[BayouGirl]

I would highly suggest that they look into the free prescription programs that many drug manufacturers offer. There are many programs available and there is paperwork to be filled out but once that is all done, they will mail the prescription each month for free. My own grandmother gets quite a few meds this way and it saves her thousands of dollars each year. Perhaps you can help them get the paperwork in order or get the info on the programs and print it out for them to look over. If they feel comfortable discussing their medications and the cost of them with you, then you could be a great advocate to help them with this, especially if they are not familiar with the internet.

Mturk was suggested by a poster before me and I have to say that I have been able to make a good deal of money with them. Mturk (Mturk.com) is part of Amazon.com and companies or people (called requesters ) list small jobs (call HITs) which may be a survey, classifying items, writing a review or article, transcribing something, etc. Basically a company may have a task where they need hundreds of items tagged or classified. So they split that into hundreds of single hits, rather than putting it as one huge job. So you can do as many or as few as you like. Many of the surveys are part of research for studies or people working on a college paper or thesis. (NONE of the surveys should be of the scam type where they simply want you to give your email and personal info and require you to sign up for things which cost money. Those type of scam surveys are a violation of Mturks rules).

I have been working with Mturk for some time and was fortunate to pick of steady work for a requester there writing article, spinning article and doing rewrites. I have made a few thousand dollars that way, even making over a hundred dollars a night a few times for just a few hours of work. That isn't typical but it can happen. If a requester likes your work then they can request you and send work just for you to do that others aren't eligible. The money goes onto your Amazon.com account and can be spent there or transferred to your bank acct.

If the husband has any writing abilities, he can also find companies online that will pay him to write web content. It isn't necessary to be a professional writer with impeccable writing skills because a lot of web content on websites is to plump it up with keywords and for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes to make the website stand out more to search engines. (That's my understanding of it anyway, someone else may explain it better). I have written for iWriter.com and made a good deal of money there but have slacked off of working there since my MTurk requester has given me steady weekly work and I have been working as a caretaker for my gram.

If I personally knew the couple, then I would go buy some staples that they use (in bulk) or go to a local food bank and see about explaining the situation to them and getting them some food and dropping it off anonymously. Perhaps even attach a note like "You have helped me in the past when I needed help and I wanted to find a way to show you my appreciation. Please allow me to express my gratitude to you by accepting this gift". Perhaps then, they would not view it as charity but as thank you for something they had done for someone else in the past."

Are they members of a church? Is their church aware of their situation. Could you discreetly make them aware of the severity of the situation?

I had a neighbor who did not want to take charity and so I helped arrange it where the food bank presented to the neighbor as if the food bank needed volunteers to help (which they do) and in return they would give the volunteer a share of food from the food bank. That way the neighbor didnt see it as charity but rather as earnings and also helped them feel that they were making a contribution. Your male neighbor may be feeling very badly about his inability to work and being able to do something like that might also help him feel better.

If you have the means to make a financial contribution or there are others aware of their situation who would like to help financially, you could always put that money on a gift card (like a green dot one that can be spent anywhere) or simply contact their electric company and put the money on their account so that the couple cannot refuse it as they might if you gave it to them in person.

I feel badly for this couple and have experienced some of what they are going thru in the past. Once upon a time I was a teacher and made decent money and then I became severely ill, almost died and have not been able to return to working full time since then. I lost my insurance along with my income ( and my marriage). I wasn't eligible for any government help although the worker did suggest that if I were an alcoholic, drug addict or were obese THEN I would qualify for help. Wow, just wow!

This is one of the reasons why I am so adamant about living a simple life now. I never want to be in that situation again. It was so stressful to watch my life fall apart, worry over losing my house and be so helpless and exhausted all at the same time. I still struggle with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, kidney stones and occasional episodes where I pass out with no warning. But despite all of that, I feel so blessed to have the life I have now and am thankful for every little thing that I have.

[Tradd]

Sometimes the doctors' offices themselves are good resources for free medication. A friend has lupus. One of the meds she needs is very expensive (don't know which one). Her doctor's office asked a few questions about income and such, and suddenly my friend had a "debit" card from the drug manufacturer for $6000 worth of this med for a year.

[chrisgermany]

The money we can get from the government in hard times is nothing but the return of the tax investment we give to the government in good times.
Nobody would refuse repayment of a bank loan. With the loan to government the terms for repayment are just more complicated.

It is hard to help a person who is picky which help to accept.

[ToomuchStuff]

cite please? I haven't seen this as part of the new health care reform but maybe I missed something. Also it's been illegal to import prescription drugs from Canada since the GWBush administration, supposedly for "safety" reasons, but of course it was a gift to US big pharma. All those Canadians taking those un-safe drugs, dropping like flies ....


Otherwise, if one of them is a military veteran, it would make sense to check with the VA for any possible benefit.

Could you also cite that? I am pretty sure it was illegal before him as drugs in the USA, had to be USDA approved to be sold to the public.

That said, I have always expected some sort of nafta challenge to the ban, and ban's still haven't stopped the flow of substances into this country. (drugs, absinthe, toilets, etc.)

[Weston]

... and the wife is dead set against taking any help from the government. i hope she changes her mind, considering their situation.

There is the problem in a nutshell.

Most of the suggestions I (and anyone else) would give you would entail at least partial use of government benefits. If she is dead set on having herself and her husband suffer and risk their lives rather than take help from the government they have been paying taxes to for all these years, then I don't think that any of us is going to be able to offer a truly viable solution.

[ApatheticNoMore]

cite please? I haven't seen this as part of the new health care reform but maybe I missed something. Also it's been illegal to import prescription drugs from Canada since the GWBush administration, supposedly for "safety" reasons, but of course it was a gift to US big pharma. All those Canadians taking those un-safe drugs, dropping like flies ....

Let's see should I cite some "Mitt Romney for President" site, or Breitbart (both referencing this), what will be considered nice and non-partisan .... No, actually you are right, it's been more or less illegal for awhile (illegal but to an extent that half the people don't seem to know it's illegal at any given time, it's kind of like the legal status of medical marijuana in California, illegal but seeming very gray area). The real truth is that measures supporting making this illegal are probably scattered across several different laws, Medicare part D, various trade agreements probably (lots and lots of IP protections written into trade agreements), etc..

What we do know about Obamacare, there were secret withheld from the public closed door deals to help assure drug importation never reached the light of day:

"Drug re-importation never made it into the final legislation.

As part of the final deal, PhRMA agreed to support health care legislation, spend millions on ads promoting it, and agree to $80 billion in savings and taxes to help finance the bill.

In exchange, PhRMA not only ended up with a law that promised to provide it with millions of new customers, but protected it against policies contemplated by Democrats that would have been harmful to their profits, such as introducing a government plan into the Medicare prescription drug program, allowing rebates for drug purchases through the program and drug re-importation"
http://washingtonexaminer.com/emails-reveal-secret-obamacare-deal-with-drug-cos/article/1322331

Anyway, my real point, was radical, that the whole system is so top to bottom corrupt, that if the only way one can afford needed medications (assuming a lifestyle change fix is out of the question) is to go across the border for meds, and a border crossing is easily within their capacity, then they should definitely do so!

[jennipurrr]

I believe there are parts of the new health law that allow for opening of individual packages and much stricter enforcement of prescriptions from overseas coming in. I tried to google search and I got a bunch of spam sites trying to sell me viagra from Canada, haha. I think its bunk. I've been ordering birth control for $25/mo where it is $50 in the US, however, in January that medicine should be free for me, so I guess I will be out of the prescription loop. However, I have seen some of the cost difference for the newer psychiatric drugs for severe mental illness (hundreds of dollars a month) and those are the people we as a society need to be on their meds, so I worry about that avenue being shut down for the people that really need those and other drugs at an affordable cost.

I'm sorry to hear about your friends Jschmidt. I had a lot of success buying and reselling things from the thrift/salvage store on ebay...it takes a knack but it is not a difficult skill to pick up. Is the husband in good enough health to do that?