From: wemit@elknet.net   
      
   Hello,   
       Many of us on low, fixed incomes can't pay for the meds we need to stay   
   alive while you voted to increase your own salaries. This is not right! My   
   SSI for cut over $500 when I married a retired man last year. This is a   
   travisty! Its far cheaper on the system for us to be married & living   
   together than apart with fewer medical costs & improved diet.   
       My home of 26 years was just sold. The taxes & utility costs are far too   
   high for our meager incomes ($1,000 a month) to cover. I don't know which   
   bills I can/cannot pay each month, which is very stressful.  You have no   
   idea what havoc cuts to our programs has caused. We can't afford to get the   
   meds we need to stay alive which is humiliating! You all sit in an ivory   
   tower, not knowing or caring what affect your actions have on people like   
   us. We are elderly -- 60 & 70 years old. We don't have the resources younger   
   folk have. We can't work 40+ hours a week just to make ends meet. Bankrupcy   
   laws make it so we can't even get this protection. I'm still being   
   threatened about loans I paid off 4 years ago. We are unable to cover   
   Wayne's supplemental medicare policy so he isn't covered should he be   
   hospitalized. That's more stress. My medical providers get paid so little   
   that I will soon be unable to get any medical care for myself. I had major   
   lumbar fusion surgery last January; the hospital bill was $69,000 -- they   
   were paid $15,000; the surgeron's bill was $77,000 -- he got paid $15,000.   
   Just how long do you think these people can afford to have us as patients?   
   They lose money every time we walk in their door. No dentist in this county   
   takes any kind of "assignment" which is dumb. They have to be transported to   
   Milwaukee, Madison, Beloit, or Janesville which costs more than adequately   
   paying locals. I've been trying to warn all of you that this is what would   
   happen IF you kept taking away our basic benefits. I am anxious to see the   
   day when you are forced onto these programs & suffer the losses we are. But,   
   I forgot that you get a life- time huge pension with all medical costs   
   covered. How good for you....   
           Mrs. Sandra Mitchell (& Wayne) NEE:  Mrs. Sandra Weiss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)