Local wife of former atomic plant worker appeals for medical bills aid

[theHandpuppet]

USA! USA! USA! Why does this woman hate our freedoms?

From the Portsmouth (OH) Daily Times' Letters to the Editor...
Local wife of former atomic plant worker appeals for medical bills aid

Saturday, July 28, 2007 11:48 PM EDT

I'm not sure why I'm writing this or where to start, but my husband is a terminal cancer patient from the former Goodyear Atomic Energy Plant of Piketon. He worked there from 1975 to 1985.

In 2002, our life as we knew it ended, and in came several surgeries, multiple doctors and hospital visits one after another. Starting with colon cancer, to prostrate cancer, now bladder cancer - as well as the complications that come with radiation and chemotherapy treatments, like diabetes mellitus, depression, memory problems because of the first stage of Alzheimer's and many rashes - we now never know what tomorrow will bring.

Then, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act came up with their promise of help, and we thought things would get better, but not so. I have been trying to get them to pay since February, until now in July, one of our medical supply companies for a bill, and to reimburse us for prescriptions that were supposed to be covered by DOL; but when we went to pick them up, the pharmacy said they had been denied. He needed them, so we paid for them - like his insulin, which we are still waiting to be paid for.

If I sound upset, well, I am. I have sent letters to senators and congressmen, even to the Denver news and several areas of DOL and no feedback. We have been made to feel if they put us off long enough, he'll pass away and that will be one less bill to have to pay. It's like the longer he lives, the more money we cost them. We feel like just a number, not a person. None of them have been to our home to meet us or see if we are real. Several of the patients have been put off over and over till their loved ones passed and their aid is no longer needed. This is not fair. And there is no monitory value you could place on my husband....

READ MORE AT: http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/articles/2007/07/29/news/letters_to_the_editor/1letters_sickworker.txt