November 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Ghana: Insurance: Health Insurance: Maine Today: Sue Pastore was once enrolled in the teachers' insurance program but opted out when she went to Ghana on a Peace Corps mission in 2001. When she rushed home three months later because of her daughter's high-risk pregnancy with Andrew, she was not allowed to sign on again
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November 7, 2004: Headlines: COS - Ghana: Insurance: Health Insurance: Maine Today: Sue Pastore was once enrolled in the teachers' insurance program but opted out when she went to Ghana on a Peace Corps mission in 2001. When she rushed home three months later because of her daughter's high-risk pregnancy with Andrew, she was not allowed to sign on again
Sue Pastore was once enrolled in the teachers' insurance program but opted out when she went to Ghana on a Peace Corps mission in 2001. When she rushed home three months later because of her daughter's high-risk pregnancy with Andrew, she was not allowed to sign on again
Sue Pastore was once enrolled in the teachers' insurance program but opted out when she went to Ghana on a Peace Corps mission in 2001. When she rushed home three months later because of her daughter's high-risk pregnancy with Andrew, she was not allowed to sign on again
Qualifying for health program means accepting cut in income
By JOSIE HUANG, Staff Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Caption: Sue Pastore, 63, wanted to help raise her grandson, 2-year-old Andrew Paton, whose parents both work. She knew she would have to go without health insurance to do so. Staff photo by Gordon Chibroski
A Baby Einstein program is on the television as 2-year-old Andrew Paton spins in the middle of the floor, only stopping to greet his grandmother in her rocking chair.
Sue Pastore scoops up the toddler and nuzzles her face in his. "I love him so much," she says, as he yelps happily.
Pastore, 63, knew she wanted to help raise her only grandson, whose parents both work. She also knew she would have to go without health insurance to do so.
To watch him several days a week, she worked part time at the Preble Street Resource Center in Portland, making her ineligible for health benefits offered full-time employees at the homeless shelter.
But she didn't earn enough to buy a policy on the individual market, which is priced higher for older people. And her pension payments pushed her over the income-eligibility requirements for MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program.
She was once enrolled in the teachers' insurance program but opted out when she went to Ghana on a Peace Corps mission in 2001. When she rushed home three months later because of her daughter's high-risk pregnancy with Andrew, she was not allowed to sign on again.
After more than a year without insurance, she realized she couldn't keep banking on her good health.
"Things happen to people," Pastore said. "If I broke a leg, my kids would end up having to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills."
Last May, she stopped working for money and started volunteering instead at Preble Street's weekend soup kitchen and day center.
That way her income would drop to the $1,200 she gets monthly for her pension - still too much for MaineCare, but enough to qualify for a free health insurance program at Maine Medical Center, called CarePartners.
With her reduced income, though, she could no longer afford her rent and moved into public housing a month later.
It's a choice Pastore, who spent a career working with students with behavioral problems, can handle. But it doesn't mean she likes it.
"People's lives are totally controlled by the needs for health care," Pastore said.
Now, she is counting down to the day she becomes eligible for Medicare, the health insurance program for senior citizens and some disabled individuals.
"I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I know I'll be able to go back to work when I'm 65," she said.
- Josie Huang
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Story Source: Maine Today
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Ghana; Insurance; Health Insurance
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