Day 8: Steve's story
The following post is one I hope everyone reads closely and passes along to friends to read as well. It concerns the state of healthcare in Missouri, which no doubt is in peril.
I had the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion with the proprietor of the cafe I was blogging about this morning. His name was Steve and he's originally from Oregon. He moved to St. Louis in the early '90s to work construction. One night in March 2004, Steve was driving a co-worker home from work. Steve's a nice guy and he was doing his co-worker a favor. This also happened to be payday for Steve and his co-worker, so they each had $500 in their pockets.
When Steve and the co-worker were in a remote area, the co-worker took a butcher's knife from his bag and demanded Steve give him his money. Steve resisted and the co-worker attacked. By the end of the scuffle, Steve's right arm was cut up so bad he would get 200 stitches, and he was sliced across the throat from one side of his neck to the other. The co-worker threw Steve in the back of the van and ditched it at some warehouse delivery location where, 8 hours later, someone saw blood dripping out of the van and found Steve inside.
It's a miracle he survived. He still has a twitch on the right side of his face and he has a gold chip sewn into his right eyelid because he wouldn't be able to close the eye at night without the added weight.
He was unable to go back to working construction after his injuries and it was difficult for him to work with other employees at other jobs because he could not trust anyone at that point. The cost of his medical care that night, and for the therapist he still sees, are covered, but Steve was one of the more than 100,000 Missourians who lost healtchcare coverage in 2005. The doctors, by that time, had cleared him to return to work, and the job he found paid too much for him to qualify for health care, but not enough to afford it on his own. Now, as the operator of the Corner Bistro, he estimates it would cost him $400 to $500 per month for health care, and he and his girlfriend just bought a house so there's not a lot of money to go around.
He couldn't even remember the last time he saw a doctor before his incident. Because of what happened to him that night in March 2004, there are a lot of jobs he can't do, but he found one he could do. He has a job that he works at every day, yet he cannot afford health care. This is not right.
I had the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion with the proprietor of the cafe I was blogging about this morning. His name was Steve and he's originally from Oregon. He moved to St. Louis in the early '90s to work construction. One night in March 2004, Steve was driving a co-worker home from work. Steve's a nice guy and he was doing his co-worker a favor. This also happened to be payday for Steve and his co-worker, so they each had $500 in their pockets.
When Steve and the co-worker were in a remote area, the co-worker took a butcher's knife from his bag and demanded Steve give him his money. Steve resisted and the co-worker attacked. By the end of the scuffle, Steve's right arm was cut up so bad he would get 200 stitches, and he was sliced across the throat from one side of his neck to the other. The co-worker threw Steve in the back of the van and ditched it at some warehouse delivery location where, 8 hours later, someone saw blood dripping out of the van and found Steve inside.
It's a miracle he survived. He still has a twitch on the right side of his face and he has a gold chip sewn into his right eyelid because he wouldn't be able to close the eye at night without the added weight.
He was unable to go back to working construction after his injuries and it was difficult for him to work with other employees at other jobs because he could not trust anyone at that point. The cost of his medical care that night, and for the therapist he still sees, are covered, but Steve was one of the more than 100,000 Missourians who lost healtchcare coverage in 2005. The doctors, by that time, had cleared him to return to work, and the job he found paid too much for him to qualify for health care, but not enough to afford it on his own. Now, as the operator of the Corner Bistro, he estimates it would cost him $400 to $500 per month for health care, and he and his girlfriend just bought a house so there's not a lot of money to go around.
He couldn't even remember the last time he saw a doctor before his incident. Because of what happened to him that night in March 2004, there are a lot of jobs he can't do, but he found one he could do. He has a job that he works at every day, yet he cannot afford health care. This is not right.
posted by The Transporter at 7:04 PM
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