Joe Bellisle, left, comforts Terry Thompson on a recent evening at North by Northeast Community Health Center in Portland. Thompson suffers from severe asthma but says she has no money or insurance. (Photo by Stephanie Yao)
Posted on 03/19/2008 1:39:17 PM PDT by Incorrigible
Joe Bellisle, left, comforts Terry Thompson on a recent evening at North by Northeast Community Health Center in Portland. Thompson suffers from severe asthma but says she has no money or insurance. (Photo by Stephanie Yao) |
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PORTLAND, Ore. — The job offer flooded Sebastian Williams with relief. He'd hunted for work since he was dismissed more than a year ago from a truck-driving gig for speeding.
The weight of overdue bills crushed him. He could hardly look his elderly mother in the eyes because he felt like her burden instead of her aid.
Williams had only to pass a physical, and he could have the cement-mixer job and full benefits. No sweat, he thought.
But minutes into the health screening, the doctor called it off. Dangerously high blood pressure and blood sugar meant he wouldn't pass.
"Please, I can get my blood pressure and sugar down," Williams pleaded. "Do you know how hard it is to be a diabetic with no insurance? I really need this job."
A few minutes later, the 41-year-old slid into the seat of his car, put his head in his hands and cried.
Williams, among the 47 million uninsured in this country, is stuck in a frustrating cycle: He's in poor health in large part because he doesn't have insurance. He doesn't have insurance because he doesn't have a job. He's been turned down for a job because he's in poor health.
Two-thirds of Americans younger than 65 get health insurance through employers. Yet as insurance costs for businesses have skyrocketed, fewer employers offer insurance as a benefit. Those that do are looking for ways to cut costs; employer-based health premiums have increased 87 percent since 2000.
Many companies are turning to pre-employment screenings. Insurance companies give discounts for employers who require physicals as a condition of employment, says Alan Lasky, a vice president at Kroll, a national company that coordinates health screenings for businesses. "I think we have more savvy employers. It's becoming more popular."
Lasky says companies aren't screening out sick employees but making sure that health problems won't cause workers to hurt themselves or others.
Donna Beegle, who runs a nonprofit called PovertyBridge that works to improve the lives of the poor, suspects that's not entirely true. But she also doesn't point her finger at businesses. She points her finger at society.
"You hardly ever hear us talking about health keeping people from working and health keeping people in poverty," she says. "Because we blame people who are in poverty, we are so silent around this issue."
Though no one knows how many people share Williams' situation, health care workers say his story is all too familiar.
"We see a bunch of these people," says Jill Ginsberg, who runs the North by Northeast Community Health Center in Portland, which gives free medical care to the indigent. "It's such a Catch-22. Here you have people who are able to work, who want to work, and when they find (job openings) they just get stymied."
The Oregon Health Plan provides free or low-cost health care to some 400,000 very low- or no-income residents, about 40 percent of them children. The federal government provides health care for those older than 65 and some others. Everyone else must fend for themselves.
Just before 11 on a Tuesday morning, Williams pulls his white Pontiac Bonneville with its dented bumper into the work force development parking lot in Northeast Portland. He's a squat man with a receding hairline, his face a mask of determination. He slings a blue backpack over his shoulder and heads inside, where he joins a dozen or so people seated at computers, searching for a chance.
Each day since Williams lost his job, looking for work has been his work.
He's never been rich, the best dressed or the most educated. But since he was 13, Williams took pride in working. It's what made him a man.
After graduating from high school, he got a job painting trucks for Freightliner. After getting laid off, he went to truck-driving school.
"I could pay my bills on time, keep my car up, help my family out," Williams says, scrolling through job Web sites. "You know, I had a little money to go out on the weekend and travel a bit."
When he lost his job truck driving, he not only lost his income but also the key to his health. Without insurance, Williams stopped going to the doctor even though he has diabetes. Sometimes, he says, he couldn't even pay for food. A $200 doctor's visit — out of the question.
Williams is like most of Ginsberg's patients at the North by Northeast clinic. He's an African-American man — among the least likely nationwide to be insured — middle-aged, with hypertension. A $5-a-month medication could easily control high blood pressure, Ginsberg says, but without forking over money to see a doctor, you can't get a prescription.
So, like Williams, they wake each day sicker than the last. And many don't learn how sick they are until a potential employer pays for a physical. It's often the first time they've seen a doctor in months. Sometimes, years.
About 40 percent of the unemployed don't work because of chronic illness or disease, according to the U.S. Census. "It's devastating for people to find out a problem they weren't aware of and that this could cost them this job or future jobs," Ginsberg says.
The cement-mixer job seemed like a lifesaver. It fit Williams' qualifications and paid close to $20 an hour. Often the jobs requiring health screenings are those with salaries that could lift a person from poverty's rim.
Now Williams considers settling for $8-an-hour jobs as a laborer. It won't pay his bills. Won't pay a doctor. But it's better than nothing.
Williams logs off the computer. His shoulders stoop as he fights a wave of the blues. He's worried about money and what the stress will do to his fragile health.
"I'm a Cancer," he says, grabbing a golden chain with a dangling crab from under his fleece. "You see a crab, when he's cornered, he's going to keep fighting to the death."
It's the only choice he has.
* * *
How poor health keeps people from working:
In 2004, the most recent data available, 79 million people had not worked in at least four months.
Of those ages 45-64, 38 percent were not working because of chronic illness or disability.
Of those ages 20-64, a fourth were not working because of chronic illness or disability.
Sixty percent of those reporting they were unable to find work lacked health insurance.
Estimates of productivity lost each year due to people going without health insurance range from $65 million to $130 million.
Health care is a key issue among voters for the upcoming presidential election. For detailed information on the three presidential candidates' health insurance proposals, go to Health08.org.
Sources: U.S. Census, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(Nikole Hannah-Jones is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. She can be contacted at nhannahjones(at)news.oregonian.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
"You hardly ever hear us talking about health keeping people from working and health keeping people in poverty,"
Really? Let's rewind the clock 200 years for some Ben Franklin quotes:
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
"Money can help you to get medicines but not health. Money can help you to get soft pillows, but not sound sleep. Money can help you to get material comforts, but not eternal bliss. Money can help you to get ornaments, but not beauty. Money will help you to get an electric earphone, but not natural hearing. Attain the supreme wealth, wisdom, and you will have everything."
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
Health equals wealth and there is no doubt about that.
What I don't understand, and I fault the "journalist" who wrote this, is why the subject can't get his $5 diabetes drug because he needs a doctor's prescription. She's meeting him at a health clinic for people just like him! Here's their mission statement:
The mission of the North by Northeast Community Health Center is to improve health outcomes in a medically under-served community by offering health screening and basic medical services at no cost. Priority is given to low-income individuals without health insurance living in the surrounding inner N/NE neighborhoods.
It would be helpful if the writer would tell his how the clinic actually helped the man!
he was dismissed more than a year ago from a truck-driving gig for speeding
This article smells of aged BS. What a tear-jerker. Out of work for a YEAR as a truck driver? Riiiiight.
I have a hard time believing that one speeding ticket kills a trucking career. Truckers esp. longhaul are in big demand.
This is so a “woe-is-me-we-need-socialized-healthcare” article.
My Dr. gave me Blood Pressure medicine samples for 3 years.
$86 a month prescription.
He got ‘em free from the Eeeevil drug company
We’ve been hearing the same shallow crap for years. If they just had a “chance,” and some “help,” they could make it...
For 40 years, we’ve had one entitlement program after another with very little change in the poverty rate. What we do have is a large group of people who are dependent on the government and the taxpayers.
How little we know of history! The tyrants have often used “the needs of the people” to gain popular power.
Take a look at Hugo Chavez. He doing the same things, in fast forward.
“...47 million uninsured in this country...”
The Left and the Media throw this number around with ease. Many of these people can AFFORD health insurance, but choose not to pay it.
Cable, smokes, booze, beer, and burritos are more important to them than health insurance.
So be it.
Don’t forget we could cut the number of uninsured in half if illegal alians were not included in that amount.
Oh, pullleeeaassseee....get off your duff, quit eating processed food (you can check out the DASH DIET for year - the gov't will send you the diet for FREE!) The Dash diet results are amazing - 70% of those who go on it are OFF their bp meds in 3 months.
According to Barack Obama, Ashley’s mother’s Cancer got better after she ate Mustard and Relish sandwiches for a year.
I provide full health coverage, dental, retirement, etc., to all my employees.
They don’t even think about it anymore, although the costs average more than $8000 per employee.
Just, for one year, I wish they all had to pay their own taxes, insurance, etc. We just give them a check for their full level of salary and benefits.
My guess is, many of them would drop their health insurance and 401K contributions!
What a load!!!
Yes, in a job that requires a good driving record and without union protection. The unions as a rule, are trouble, but they can protect workers from frivolous firings. Management jobs are probably the most precarious.
For those crying "BS"...apparently you haven't been in the real world lately.
...
"Money can help you to get medicines but not health. Money can help you to get soft pillows, but not sound sleep. Money can help you to get material comforts, but not eternal bliss. Money can help you to get ornaments, but not beauty. Money will help you to get an electric earphone, but not natural hearing. Attain the supreme wealth, wisdom, and you will have everything."
Obviously a blatant misquote. There were no "electric earphones" in Franklin's day, or (I would estimate) for the better part of a hundred years thereafter.
I don’t know about Oregon laws, but in AZ one speeding ticket that isn’t properly handled can kill your truck driver license, so it could kill a career.
bump
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