Food for Your Children or Medicine You Need. What Would You Choose?

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/26/food-for-children-or-medicine-you-need-what-would-you-choose/

by Mike Hall, Mar 26, 2008

Like most parents, Marie from Wisconsin puts her children’s welfare above her own, even when it means foregoing the medicine she needs so she can feed her kids.

Employed and with health insurance, Marie told the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey that the nation’s broken health care system has failed her, as it has for too many millions of others in the nation.



What would you do if you had to choose between food or medicine? Because of rising health care costs, that is a question that is frequently asked in my home. I work full time and have health care through my employer, but only a percentage is paid by them. I need a better-paying job, but as a single parent…I cannot go to school and work at the same time—I need the money to pay for myself and my two children to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Adding extra things to our budget is devastating.

I recently needed medication for an ailment, but did not get the medicine—I couldn’t. What would I choose? I chose my children and what they need, whether it be food or medicine. I am the one who will go without before they suffer.

Marie was one of the more than 26,000 women and men, insured and uninsured, young and old, union and nonunion who took the comprehensive survey, while nearly 7,500 took the time to write about their personal health care experiences. The overwhelming majority, 95 percent, say the health care system needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt.

FULL story at link.

[Richard Steele]

1. At that point, I would choose CRIME.

A lot of good & decent people do, y'know.

[againes654]

2. Food for my child

I have done it before, and would do it again.

[Thickasabrick]

3. Well...if I didn't take the medicine and it increased my chances of

dying relatively soon, the best thing for my kids would be to take the medicine and go to a food bank or start begging on the streets. I think the kids would probably appreciate a "living" parent, as opposed to an extra helping of mashed potatoes.

I hope that doesn't sound too cold, but logic would dictate in that scenario to choose the medicine.

[Breeze54]

6. Of course, that makes sense but when a person has to make

those kind of choices, an extra helping of mashed potatoes usually isn't an option anyway.
And the food pantry donations have dropped now and the people that were donating last year,
are now standing in line. :(

[goodgd_yall]

8. Uh---is this an anecdote?

Really, food banks are usually able to provide.

[Breeze54]

9. An anecdote? -- Hey, know it all, Food pantries are low on supplies across the country.

Try google. They've been calling out about it for a while now.

[Breeze54]

10. Here's your 'anecdote' !

Food pantries struggle to meet rising demand

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/food_pantries_struggle_to_meet.html

by Mary L. Lawrence | The Saginaw News
Monday March 24, 2008, 1:09 PM

Eating or heating? Pills or produce?

Families are facing difficult decisions as rising food prices and shrinking household budgets send
more mid-Michigan residents to soup kitchens and food pantries to make ends meet.

As a result, food assistance agencies are running low on supplies.

"People are making some hard choices. Senior citizens especially are having to decide between buying food or getting a prescription filled to make their budgets last," said Rich Premo, president and chief executive officer of Hidden Harvest.

more....

[goodgd_yall]

7. My answer too

There's usually some middle ground to take. Try to find a way to get free or cheaper meds and try to find a way to feed your children more cheaply. The Food Bank or a local church food closet would definitely be something I would do. Of, course if the medicine was not a real necessity like a hormone replacement therapy drug (something I gave up taking because I couldn't afford it anymore---and with no ill effects except for having to tolerate bad hot flashes for about a year)giving up the medicine would be a no-brainer. And if there's several you need to keep optimally helpful, eliminate those that you can get away with. Once, coming out of a hospital, I had a slew of respiratory drugs prescribed. I eventually found which one I really needed and gave up the others. Questioning your doctor is a good rule of thumb. Sometimes they over-prescribe and you may discover you don't need everything. Or---instead of taking the drug for lowering cholesterol, start excercising and cut down the fat. I've been in this situation---not enough to go around to feed myself and these are some of the things I've done.

[Thickasabrick]

11. Yup - if the medicine is marginally optional and the effects would

simply mean discomfort - I can see going through the discomfort to feed the kids. As a single parent - one of my biggest fears when my child was growing up was...what if something happened to me? I think that fear guided some of my choices as it related to lifestyle.

[JDPriestly]

4. Food for my children.

[Breeze54]

5. Been there and the kids got food.

Always, the kids came first.