Need Help Funding my Mom's Health Care
Donation protected
Dear Friends!
I am sending out this request, petition, call, for your help --for your active, human support. Also for you help in sending this message forward to others who may be able to help.
As many of you may know, my mother, Karen, is a tireless worker with tireless openness and enthusiasm for life, for her amazing work with young children, for giving of herself generously and freely in all that she does. She has great capacity and also, faces great challenges.
She in great need right now.
I have tried to lend help where I have been able but ultimately I find myself not able to help in all of the ways that I so deeply wish that I could. It has been a time of trying and trial and realizing we cannot do all that is required right now "on our own".
I hope that you may be able to find a moment to continue reading this request as it comes from my mother, Karen.
I send this message to you in good faith, with deep gratitude for ANY way in which you are able to extend your hand as a friend.
Maya
Here is my mother's message:
Dear Friends, Acquaintances, Family, and Community!
As many of you know, I am a pre-school teacher and have been here in Sacramento since 1984 --it is hard to believe! I have raised a daughter (all grown up now) and have helped raise many other wonderful young people over the years as they came to me through my kindergarten work at Camellia Waldorf School or to my home pre-school, Little Gate, over many years. It has been a rich and intense working life in this community --and this year I turned 60!
While even now my work has continued to ask the best and most of me, in recent years my health has increasingly challenged me to meet the tasks I love and which make a livelihood possible. I have developed several auto-immune disorders (Celiac disease, Hashimotos Thyroiditus and osteoporosis) which require constant vigilance and attention. Over the past 3 summers I have found myself very ill with bacterial intestinal infections causing weight loss, anemia, eventual fatigue and depression. So my situation has become increasingly complex, as it does for many of us as the years go on.
In January, because of concern for my health, my daughter signed me up with Kaiser Permanente under Obamacare. She helped pay my first 2 months of premiums, but could not afford to continue to help, and now I have fallen behind.
Since a job loss in 2011, I haven't been able to find employment that paid enough to cover my bills and expenses, so over the past year I started substitute teaching and in January re-opened my in-home preschool, while maintaining a weekend part-time job as a personal care assistant. But despite the fact that I now work 3 jobs, totaling a 6 to 7 day work week, I cannot afford my Kaiser premium of $132 per month. I am struggling to afford my basic monthly expenses which include the supplements and thyroid medication that keep me well and I have now fallen behind on my utility payments as well.
I am very frugal and eat sparingly, I buy used clothes when I can afford it, drive an old 1991 jeep and am trying everything I can to stay afloat.
As of June 1 I will be 4 months behind on my Kaiser premium and Kaiser has notified me that if I cannot pay by June 1st, my coverage will be terminated and additionally I'll be billed for services rendered and have to pay out of pocket for the ultrasound I had on my thyroid, as well as all of my lab work. My worsening health and now the discovery that I have a number of nodules on my thyroid leaves me with the concern that losing my medical coverage could create both a financial and health crisis I would not be able to cope with or recover from.
Amazingly, despite my financial situation, I make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal and do not qualify for Medicare...
So, out of complete humbleness and with all my heart, I am asking for your help, large or small, to make this life-line of health coverage possible. I need $396 to catch up with my Kaiser premiums and then, additionally, enough to cover June, July and August's premium, since, due to the reduction in my hours from one job and the lack of sub work due to the summer break these payments will be even more difficult to cover.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I deeply appreciate you giving thought to this situation --it is not easy to ask for help when it is needed most but I hope and trust that with your help I will be able to take the steps needed to find better health and strength for what is being asked of me in my life right now.
With warmest regards,
Karen Petty
I am sending out this request, petition, call, for your help --for your active, human support. Also for you help in sending this message forward to others who may be able to help.
As many of you may know, my mother, Karen, is a tireless worker with tireless openness and enthusiasm for life, for her amazing work with young children, for giving of herself generously and freely in all that she does. She has great capacity and also, faces great challenges.
She in great need right now.
I have tried to lend help where I have been able but ultimately I find myself not able to help in all of the ways that I so deeply wish that I could. It has been a time of trying and trial and realizing we cannot do all that is required right now "on our own".
I hope that you may be able to find a moment to continue reading this request as it comes from my mother, Karen.
I send this message to you in good faith, with deep gratitude for ANY way in which you are able to extend your hand as a friend.
Maya
Here is my mother's message:
Dear Friends, Acquaintances, Family, and Community!
As many of you know, I am a pre-school teacher and have been here in Sacramento since 1984 --it is hard to believe! I have raised a daughter (all grown up now) and have helped raise many other wonderful young people over the years as they came to me through my kindergarten work at Camellia Waldorf School or to my home pre-school, Little Gate, over many years. It has been a rich and intense working life in this community --and this year I turned 60!
While even now my work has continued to ask the best and most of me, in recent years my health has increasingly challenged me to meet the tasks I love and which make a livelihood possible. I have developed several auto-immune disorders (Celiac disease, Hashimotos Thyroiditus and osteoporosis) which require constant vigilance and attention. Over the past 3 summers I have found myself very ill with bacterial intestinal infections causing weight loss, anemia, eventual fatigue and depression. So my situation has become increasingly complex, as it does for many of us as the years go on.
In January, because of concern for my health, my daughter signed me up with Kaiser Permanente under Obamacare. She helped pay my first 2 months of premiums, but could not afford to continue to help, and now I have fallen behind.
Since a job loss in 2011, I haven't been able to find employment that paid enough to cover my bills and expenses, so over the past year I started substitute teaching and in January re-opened my in-home preschool, while maintaining a weekend part-time job as a personal care assistant. But despite the fact that I now work 3 jobs, totaling a 6 to 7 day work week, I cannot afford my Kaiser premium of $132 per month. I am struggling to afford my basic monthly expenses which include the supplements and thyroid medication that keep me well and I have now fallen behind on my utility payments as well.
I am very frugal and eat sparingly, I buy used clothes when I can afford it, drive an old 1991 jeep and am trying everything I can to stay afloat.
As of June 1 I will be 4 months behind on my Kaiser premium and Kaiser has notified me that if I cannot pay by June 1st, my coverage will be terminated and additionally I'll be billed for services rendered and have to pay out of pocket for the ultrasound I had on my thyroid, as well as all of my lab work. My worsening health and now the discovery that I have a number of nodules on my thyroid leaves me with the concern that losing my medical coverage could create both a financial and health crisis I would not be able to cope with or recover from.
Amazingly, despite my financial situation, I make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal and do not qualify for Medicare...
So, out of complete humbleness and with all my heart, I am asking for your help, large or small, to make this life-line of health coverage possible. I need $396 to catch up with my Kaiser premiums and then, additionally, enough to cover June, July and August's premium, since, due to the reduction in my hours from one job and the lack of sub work due to the summer break these payments will be even more difficult to cover.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I deeply appreciate you giving thought to this situation --it is not easy to ask for help when it is needed most but I hope and trust that with your help I will be able to take the steps needed to find better health and strength for what is being asked of me in my life right now.
With warmest regards,
Karen Petty
Organizer
Maya Neumann
Organizer
Portland, OR
