Healing Our System: Widowed Without Coverage
By: Patricia Barry and Barbara Basler; Source: AARP Bulletin Date Posted: 2007-03-08 11:05:00-05:00
By Patricia Barry and Barbara Basler
March 2007
Joan Dabbundo, 63, of Philadelphia lost her health insurance when she was 39 years old, the year her husband, a Philadelphia police officer, died of cancer. She was insured through him, and when he was gone so was her coverage.
To raise her three children, Dabbundo worked at a number of jobs—as a waitress, a caregiver for children and the elderly, as a night-shift checkout clerk at Kmart. None of these jobs offered health insurance, and private insurance was too expensive. In fact, money was so tight, the family eventually lost its home because she couldn’t make the payments.
And help has often been elusive. Dabbundo’s small paychecks, coupled with her late husband’s pension, put her over the income limit for Medicaid assistance.
“I thought about health insurance all the time,” she says, barely speaking above a whisper, each sentence punctuated by a coughing spasm. “I was always worried, what if, what if ... ”
Last July she started to feel bad—and then worse. “But I just kept on going, hoping whatever this was would go away,” she says. In October she finally went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with lung cancer.
“They’re treating me at the hospital, and I guess they’ll send me the bills later,” Dabbundo says softly. “They haven’t said, and I haven’t asked. I don’t know what happens next.”
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