Posts
It has been awhile since I felt compelled to let off steam! However; when I was denied my social security benefits after a debilitating illness I was just to tired to fight; now it has happened again to someone very near and dear to my heart for the very same reasons.
After spending a lifetime working in the private sector; (in my case I even spent 12 years in the military) we both decided to go into education. The idea of course was to spend the next 20 to 25 years doing something tangible, our children were grown and time was on our side. Well the unexpected happened and a catastrophic illness took us both down. This is not about me but about my sister. I have already lost everything she is about to loose everything.
The system is such that because she chose to educate our children and pay into a teacher retirement fund she does not have the credits anymore to draw on her social security until she is 62. She can buy those credits; however; if she had tens of thousands of dollars just lying around; well then this wouldn't be a problem would it.
Like most single parents it took every last dime to raise 3 children and get them through college and then get herself through graduate school so she could start over. Before she had the chance to bankroll those millions of dollars that we pay our teachers disaster struck in the form of a series of illness. One day perfectly healthy and the next day a nightmare.
If she had just quit when she first was diagnosed and not tried to go back to work over a three year period; interestingly enough her credits would have been good. Unlike some people She wanted to work and pay her way in the world and now when she can't walk and breathe they say to bad to late.
So is our health care for women fixed or getting better? I'm not sure at all. She has been denied twice for benefits. Will loose her home, need to file for bankruptcy, all the things you would think the government would NOT want to happen. Such a system we have in place for those who choose to do the right thing! I am ashamed today! Ashamed I did not fight the fight when it happened to me; that I gave in to pressure and was content to let it all go. To live below the poverty line because I am to ill to fight the system. My social security that I have been paying in since I was 15 should be available to ME early if I qualify and total disability should be enough! The fact that I tried to take a job for a few years teaching our children and did not have time to develop a retirement outside of that is irrelevant. If lawyers can't get it for you who can and by the time someone does it is too late because your home is gone and so is life as you knew it.
How strange that working in education can be so devastating to your health!
Live with Love and really try to Laugh often it is all we have
After spending a lifetime working in the private sector; (in my case I even spent 12 years in the military) we both decided to go into education. The idea of course was to spend the next 20 to 25 years doing something tangible, our children were grown and time was on our side. Well the unexpected happened and a catastrophic illness took us both down. This is not about me but about my sister. I have already lost everything she is about to loose everything.
The system is such that because she chose to educate our children and pay into a teacher retirement fund she does not have the credits anymore to draw on her social security until she is 62. She can buy those credits; however; if she had tens of thousands of dollars just lying around; well then this wouldn't be a problem would it.
Like most single parents it took every last dime to raise 3 children and get them through college and then get herself through graduate school so she could start over. Before she had the chance to bankroll those millions of dollars that we pay our teachers disaster struck in the form of a series of illness. One day perfectly healthy and the next day a nightmare.
If she had just quit when she first was diagnosed and not tried to go back to work over a three year period; interestingly enough her credits would have been good. Unlike some people She wanted to work and pay her way in the world and now when she can't walk and breathe they say to bad to late.
So is our health care for women fixed or getting better? I'm not sure at all. She has been denied twice for benefits. Will loose her home, need to file for bankruptcy, all the things you would think the government would NOT want to happen. Such a system we have in place for those who choose to do the right thing! I am ashamed today! Ashamed I did not fight the fight when it happened to me; that I gave in to pressure and was content to let it all go. To live below the poverty line because I am to ill to fight the system. My social security that I have been paying in since I was 15 should be available to ME early if I qualify and total disability should be enough! The fact that I tried to take a job for a few years teaching our children and did not have time to develop a retirement outside of that is irrelevant. If lawyers can't get it for you who can and by the time someone does it is too late because your home is gone and so is life as you knew it.
How strange that working in education can be so devastating to your health!
Live with Love and really try to Laugh often it is all we have
No comments:
Post a Comment