Long Time PUSH volunteer (and fellow Bishop McCort HS alum) Theresa Chalich wrote the letter below to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 18. From her writing it sounds like she would make a good blogger :)
Our cruel system
This letter is written in response to the March 11 editorial "Profiles in Poverty." An essential solution to one of the economic problems
for people in poverty, the ruinous expenses caused by a medical emergency, was glaringly omitted.
There needs to be recognition that when people do get the opportunity to
get off public assistance by securing a job, there is a good chance
that there are no work-related health care benefits. Part-time
employment and low-wage jobs generally do not offer individual and
family plans. And people cannot afford to pay for a private plan. Just
look at what happened to adultBasic in this state.
What a quandary for a parent to have to choose between staying on
welfare for the medical assistance for a sickly child and her family and
being employed. What a cruel system we endure. We continue to blame the
victim rather than seek systemic change.
The glaring solution is health care coverage that is not tied to a job.
This means that we expand the Medicare program to all people. The newly
hired worker will contribute payroll taxes into this single-payer
system. Thus the community mutual obligation that you mention in the
editorial will be a healthy step to lifting people out of poverty.
THERESA CHALICH, R.N.
Squirrel Hill
Squirrel Hill
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