IF YOU SUBSCRIBE, GETTING THIS AS AN EMAIL, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST TO COMMENT (OR CLICK ON THE HEADLINE FOR THE INTERNET)

**********************************************************************

I bet you don’t think about chronic illness as a cause when you read about foreclosures (unless, of course, that’s why you’ve lost your home!)

But, a new study (Get sick or get out, the medical causes of home foreclosure) found that medical bills were a factor in 23 percent of home foreclosures. Overall, illness and injury contributed to about half of the foreclosures examined.

Do you find this statistic staggering? I do.

Along the same lines: “A new study showd that nearly one out of every three working aged uninsured American suffers from a chronic illness and that many of these individuals are not going to their private physicians but are visiting the emergency departments in hospitals for medical care.” Read more

Harold Pollack’s post in the Huffingtonpost blog gives more information about  foreclosures and medical costs – and, in particular Obama and McCain’s voting record on health care and chronic illness.

Last week I wrote a blog post (Sarah Palin’s stand on chronic illness) in which I tried to make the point that the candidates should be talking about chronic illness health care coverage.  My bad – I mentioned Palin and that is off point.

I don’t think that any single administration will turn this broken system around so everyone gets the health care they need. Nor do I think that we will change the bias around the chronically ill — very quickly. But is it too much to expect that the next President and the people he appoints might at least put some  effort into improving the situation?

Recently, at a book reading for my book, Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!) at Newtonville Books, a lovely independent book store here in Newton, MA, a young woman told me she has mitochondrial disease and asked me for some advice.

She has a graduate degree and wants to get some work but she’d forfeit her MASS Health payments and maybe her Disability checks. Her mother said they’d worked so hard to get the Disability that they were afraid that any work effort would forfeit her health insurance for now and the future.

The GOOD NEWS is that she was able to get SSDI (which shows how sick she is) and MASS Health. The BAD NEWS? She’s afraid to work — and not just because it might make her sicker!

What do you think — work or take insurance? What a world – what a choice.

Do you plan to vote with your health needs in mind? Do you plan to vote with George Bush’s record in mind?

Rosalind   aka cicoach