Emelinda Senior Stroke Victim

Hi my name is Marvin and my wife Emelinda and we want to celebrate our 43rd Anniversary marriage this summer. My wife just had a stroke. Her left side is paralyzed. She will be in the hospital for awhile for rehabilitation. We have Medicare and they will cover the first 20 day at no cost for a skilled nursing facility. The next 21st till 100 day we have to pay $204 a day for copay fee. Our insurance will not cover this copay (BCBS HMO). For the first month this is $6,120. Same fee for second month for $6,120. The last 20 days will be $4,080. This is a total of $16,320. We are attempting to raise a minimum of $25,000. Emelinda will require some specialized equipment to function at home. She is still working on gaining her strength to get out of bed and stand up. The long term goal is to gain some independent skills to get on a walker and do ADL skills. It is a slow process right now It has been over a month since her stroke. It will probably take a minimum of 3 month for her. Lord willing as we pray for her recovery. I hope and pray that my wife does not have to stay past 100 days. I am praying and have faith that the Lord can help my wife to rehab herself to come back home with me. I am asking 25,000 individuals to contribute $1.00 to help us. I have been the only wage worker since my wife had a full time job raising four children. We are on a fix income and cannot afford to pay this daily copay hospital stay for rehabilitation. If you are a senior it's a disadvantage to have a stroke with such cost. I worked for the state of Illinois for 25 years (10 years as a Recreation Therapist for disabled children and 15 years as a Rehabilitation Instructor for visually impaired adults) and was forced to take Medicare for me and my wife had no choice. I have a daughter who goes to college. I use to pay one annual fee to cover three dependents with excellent medical coverage as well hospital stays. If I still had this coverage we would not be in this situation. Now we pay three time premium for all of us. This is unfair when you devoted yourself to an employer and force you to take Medicare as seniors. I would have prefer to stay with my employer health insurance. When you are on a fixed income this added cost of premium is about $400 a month more now for us. To do this in our golden years is unfair to any seniors. I know other seniors has gone through this. I hope and pray that you are willing to contribute to help us, because I do not have such income to pay these co-payment. I have worked 38 years in the social service field and as anyone knows it is a struggle financially. We appreciate it if you share this with others.

Thank you and God bless