Bull's Van and Medical Expenses
Medical Problems :(
So being hit with medical bills soon. Been having breathing issues and chest pain issues, amongst other medical and health issues that have been piling up. Being self employed, I don't have insurance through work. And the AMA/Obamacare apparetly doesn't apply to me, and Medicare has been giving me the run around.
But I've got a couple ER visits under my belt, and will be seeing a doctor to start working these problems out. Unfortunately, that's going to take $$, which I don't really have.
So once again turning to my friends and supporters. I hate doing this. It really sucks. But I'm scared, worried, and in a serious bind here. And our medical system is screwed up 16 ways from sunday. :(
If you can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Original Posting
Hi there. My name is Steven Ratkovich, better know as Bull. I am a freelance RPG author, primarily for Catalyst Game Labs working on Shadowrun. But by day, I'm a mild-mannered Amish Taxi Driver (Sort of like Uber for the Amish community).
Sadly, I have a fairly serious two-fold financial crisis facing me, which is why I've set up this GoFundMe campaign.
See, much as I love doing it, freelance writing for RPGs doesn't really pay very well. Amish Taxi work pays ok, but can be very unsteady income. And unfortunately several health issues hinder my ability to do both jobs, and make it nearly impossible for me to currently find any other job in my area.
My first problem are my rent and utility bills. My rommate, who was covering half of the monthly expenses, moved out at the beginning of the month. Unfortunately, they had been taking care of a rather sizable Eletric Bill that had accumalted during a period where neither of us were working much. We set up a payment plan so our electric doesn't get shut off, but a sizable portion of that bill remains, and the power gets cut off if we miss a single payment. So i'm looking to raise enough money to pay off the full amount of the electric bill to get clear of it, as well as cover rent and my other utrilities for the next couple months. This is something I need to get taken care of right away, as all of that is due within the next couple weeks.
The second problem is slightly less immediate, and that is the van that I drive for my Taxi work. It's an older model and has 330,000+ miles on it, and it is simply falling apart and constantly breaking down. I badly need to replace it. It's also the main reason why I'm presently in such dire financial straits, as I had a couple costly repairs that needed to be done over the last couple months, and the last one ate up every dollar I had.
So that's where I'm presently at. I have about $50 in my bank, about $100 coming in a couple days, and only a couple low payiong taxi runs booked for the next two weeks. If I don't come up with some money fast, I'm going to be powerless and possibly homeless.
So I'm turning to you for help. I'm looking to raise $1600 to cover my past-due electric bill plus the next two months, $800 for two months rent, and $200 for my other utilities. This will pay off everything I owe there, and give me a cushion so I can start saving a little again and get ahead of things. That's first and foremost.
I'm also looking to raise at least $6000 to put toward a replacement passenger van, so I can retire my current one and get something that won't leave me stranded on a backroad at 1:00 AM.
Finally, GoFundMe overall takes about 9% of the pledges to cover their fees, so I'm factoring that in as well, which is around $900, if this raises the full amount.
With your help, I can get out of my current state of emergency and get things in order to move forward. I appreciate all the love and support you can muster.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you can contribute, it would be so very helpful. Even if you cannot contribute though, please share this on Facebook or Twitter or wherever.
Thank you.
