Help us relocate to CO out of medical necessity

Introduction

I can't work due to multiple health issues and I lack healthcare. My Dad supports us on his modest retirement. What’s more, there is little chance of me getting healthcare, let alone attaining Social Security Disability benefits, in Kansas.

We’ve chosen Colorado given that this state expanded Medicaid and its proximity to where we currently live.

We still have some of the money left from the COVID stimulus payments and that may cover the costs of moving, depending on where in Colorado we eventually move.

However, our household income is limited and we do not possess a vehicle, which means we would have to take on the added expense of utilizing delivery services and/or public transportation and/or taxi services, to name but one complicating factor.

It will also greatly deplete, if not completely exhaust, what little money we each have tucked away that could cover or partially cover a potential, unforeseeable emergency. That, or in Dad’s case specifically, money that would help cover his funeral and burial expenses now that he’s almost 70 and it’s approaching that time in person’s life for him.

All this while trying to start over from nearly scratch in my father’s twilight years somewhere where we likely would not know anyone and would not have a support system to help us with anything.

That's why I must ask for help in making this transition to Colorado so that I can get Medicaid in the near term. Then I can work on attaining the Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits our household so desperately needs in the long term.

I set the current goal at 1,000 dollars but we may need closer to 2,000 dollars depending on where in the state I find a suitable location to which we can move that will best match our needs.

That said, my health issues severely limit my ability to function day-to-day, as well, they greatly hamper my ability to conduct the necessary research into the move to Colorado itself.

However, I plan to update the fund with information about specific costs as I learn more about those involved.

Having said that, please allow me to tell you part of our story while bearing with me while I do my best to explain.

Our Story

I'm not exactly sure where to start, and my mental health conditions make it difficult for me to describe things in an ordered/organized fashion.

I guess it's best to start with my health issues.

Mentally, my diagnoses are as follows:

• PTSD from acute, chronic, and complex traumas

• General and social anxiety disorders

• Persistent depressive disorder

• Other stressful life events affecting family and household

Physically, my diagnoses are as follows:

• Permanent musculoskeletal injuries from two car accidents and two different assaults by multiple individuals

• Grade 3 and 4 hemorrhoids

• A partial rectal prolapse

I suspect that I also have other mental and physical health conditions that prevent me from working as well as others that are due to getting older, having a poor diet, no exercise, etc. All of which is exacerbated by decades of frequently experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, and anger.

However, I can’t say for sure since the lack of access to healthcare prevents me from receiving diagnoses and subsequently treatment for any additional health issues I might have developed.

At this point, I should probably discuss the situation we face and some of the circumstances that lead to it.

At the age of 34, the health issues that I developed by that point—starting at the age of five that accumulated over the years from stressors, traumas, and injuries— forced me out of the workforce around December 2010.

At the age of 47, I've been supported by my father, who's almost 69 years old, on his meager, monthly SSA payments these past 13 years while he contends with his own mental and physical health issues, some of which he has had now for almost four decades or more.

Since leaving the workforce, my inability to work eventually led to the loss of the family home and Dad's life estate to backed taxes and greedy family members. This forced us to relocate from Missouri to Kansas in April 2017 under trying circumstances, to say the least.

During this same time, SSA denied me benefits 3 times due to my inability to attain the medical records necessary to prove to SSA that I am, in fact, disabled due to my numerous, debilitating health issues because MO and KS refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA.

If approved for my 2012 SSA befit application, I would have paid off the backed taxes, went to court to make Dad the executor of my Grandmother’s estate, and contributed to the household finances as well as helped to pay for repairs and maintenance of the house.

If approved for my 2018 and 2020 benefit applications, I would have paid the costs to us to move to a state that had expanded Medicaid under the ACA to include the new eligibility for which I qualify.

Had I known that my third attempt at attaining SSA benefits was doomed to failure; we would have combined our Covid-19 stimulus payments and moved to one of the aforementioned states at some point after the virus was mostly under control and doing so was safe.

At either point, we would have started fresh and started building a new life together in Dad’s twilight years, and I could have started getting the treatments I need to improve the quality of my health as well as the medical records necessary to attain said benefits.

As it stands, our only option left in Kansas is to wait another 20 years until I’m eligible for retirement and Medicare, while crossing my fingers and hoping that Dad lives that long so I’m not forced onto the streets due to lack of income, among other concerns.

That option is just not feasible. That is why it’s best for us to relocate to Colorado since I likely qualify for Medicaid there, among other reasons. Then, eventually, I can attain SSI thus reducing or even eliminating the financial burden our circumstances place on Dad.

At this point, Dad’s SSA benefits currently cover monthly expenses, but his benefits are not enough to permit him to save up for the move, and while Dad and I have some money left from the stimulus payments, that alone isn’t enough to cover the costs.

That is why I must ask for help covering the costs of relocating to Colorado in the form of small financial gifts of 5, 10, or even 20 dollars as well as sharing our fund.