Fox News and other Right wing opponents of The Affordable Care Act have paraded people in front of the camera, complaining about how Obamacare has ruined their lives, costing them money, and any other thing they can think of to cast negative aspersions on the law. What they won’t tell you, however, are the stories about people who NEED medicaid expansion, and the rest of the things that go along with Obamacare. I want all of you to take a few moments and read the touching un-edited story of Charlene Dill, as told by her best friend, Kathleen Voss Woolrich. You see, Charlene can’t tell you her story herself, because Charlene is dead, caught up in the politics of the party of “no”.
Born in Pennsylvania to a warm family, Charlene moved to Florida when she was 18 years old. She worked at fast food joints and Disney, cleaned houses and babysat but through the years found her self as a single mother with 3 kids. She had heart issues that needed to be managed and her teeth needed to be fixed and constantly had infections but Charlene never complained. She made 11000 dollars last year babysitting other peoples children and cleaning other peoples houses. She proudly paid her property taxes in February and took care of her little trailer which she owned and took all three kids to school.
But Charlene had no health insurance. Charlene was unable to get Obamacare because she made too little to get the subsidies to purchase health insurance. She had no dental insurance. Her teeth hurt her at night and had so many cavities but could not find anyway to get the decay in her teeth fixed. She was denied medicaid and when she went to get obamcare she was told she could not get subsidies.
So she went to the emergency room 2012 she had heart issues and was told to get on medicine and be monitored. No health insurance to do so. 2012 Obama won and we all were so sure… NOW Charlene would have health insurance. But the republican party of Florida and Rick Scott turned down medicaid expansion. In December Charlene went to the emergency room with abcesses in her legs. Her teeth hurt her constantly. Charlene never complained. She took her two older kids to school each day and reported for work at her various jobs. Recently she began selling vaccuum cleaners in addition to the babysitting and house cleaning. She took anti biotics. She got her healthcare at Florida hospitals emergency room
On March 21st, she was supposed to come see me on my first day off in a while. She was excited about seeing my daughter who she has raised since she was 3 and the kids were all going to play together. She had only 2 short appointments in Osceola County to show the vaccum to two customers. At about 4 pm that afternoon I got a message from her niece that she had died at the customers house. They rushed her to Poinciana medical center and worked on her. They could not bring my best friend back. She died She was 32.
You see the main argument Republicans use is that its some lazy person who needs medicaid expansion. That those of us living without healthcare or dental care are lazy. But my friend a single beautiful mother worked 3 jobs. She paid taxes . She paid her house taxes. And now shes dead
Please think of Charlene when you decide who are you are going to vote for in August and December. Please vote democrat . Please vote for people who want people like Charlene and I to have healthcare .To have a fighting chance.
I am burying my best friend soon because of Rick Scott and Will Weatherford I am buring my best friend because of the policies of the Republican Party. I am burying my best friend because had medicaid expanded, her needs would have been met. She is one of the 7 people who will die each day because the Florida House of Represenatives Republicans and Tea Party decided that we are not worth living. We are not worth healthcare. We were not worth medicaid expansion. Please vote democrat for Charlene. Please help get the republicans out and expand medicaid. Ill never have her back. Ill never see my friend again.. Ill never have another day with her because of the republican house of representatives. Please for Charlene and for me, register to vote and promise to vote against Rick Scott and any Florida republican who runs. They need to know we know. We know who they hurt and we see what they are doing to the poor of florida.
Charlene Dill 1981 to 2014
I don’t have a whole lot of words to say after that, and really, nothing else needs to be said. My heart breaks for Charlene, her family, her friends, and other people who find themselves in the same situation she did. People don’t have to die just because Republicans want to prove a point to the President. Rick Scott passed up 51 Billion dollars for medicaid expansion. This would not have cost the people of Florida a thing. Now it is costing them their lives.
People are more important than party OR politics.
To help Charlene’s family, please go here:
To learn about Medicaid Expansion, go here: and here:
Comments from Nan Rich, candidate for Fl. Governor, on medicaid expansion here:
UPDATE:
The funeral for Charlene Dill Campbell will be Saturday, 3/29, at 2 pm
at
NEWCOMERS FUNERAL HOME
895 South Goldenrod Rd.
Orlando, FL 32822
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Leslie Wimes
Latest posts by Leslie Wimes (see all)
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sad. Republicans like Rick Scott now & Crist do not care about us.
RICK SCOTT IS A CRIMINAL WHO BELONGS IN FEDERAL PRISON.
Why blame the governor, when the ACA’s standards are obviously the problem? By what logic can anyone claim that $9000 for a household of four is “too much money” ? That’s below the poverty line for a single adult, not to mention one with dependents. Shouldn’t the ACA take circumstances into account, rather than simply looking at numbers? If that alone were fixed, there would be no “gap” and states could still avoid having to commit billions in revenues toward mostly non-sudden-death-risk cases, or rather, to the bottomless program pit.
Do the people of Florida wish to pay state income tax? Isn’t that what would come to pass if the state were obliged to extend Medicaid coverage? Isn’t a primary cause of most of the massive economic and population growth in Florida the fact that the state does not impose income taxes? Do you not think that the imposition of such taxes would have the opposite impact upon the state? With the change in direction of the state’s growth, wouldn’t the commitment to the expansion of Medicaid ultimately reduce Florida’s economy, and bankrupt it?
If the government just got itself out of everybody’s business, and the media stopped lying to everyone about an “economic recovery” and conducted some actual journalism – focusing upon all that is wrong with this policy rather than serving as its PR firm / attack dog – we could actually EXPERIENCE an economic recovery, and the notion of the “working poor” would have less concrete meaning.
What is not being told to us in all this coverage? What were the issues that caused her income levels to seem too high? We hear what she earned from her jobs – but we also know that she was not divorced, but separated. Did this status cause her income to be skewed by her estranged husband’s income? Was there any child support? Reports indicated that she was covered by her husband’s insurance at one time. Why did her heart condition not find a remedy during those years?
Did she receive no tax credits or exemptions for her children? Was she on any form of welfare aside from the denied Medicaid? Why wasn’t fibromyalgia in conjunction with a congenital heart condition pursued as a disability? Or was it, with no result?
What was the actual cause of death? Was it the heart condition alone, or were there complications from infections, namely the reported tooth abscess, which is known to have heart-related complications? Was she not aware of the various pro bono options for dental care in Orlando?
If she had a congenital heart condition that was life-threatening, why was it not addressed in her childhood? Given the heart condition, why was she living such a hectic lifestyle? Isn’t the ideal in that case to reduce stress? With fibromyalgia and a divorce pending, that’s stress enough. Adding in three jobs: Seems extreme. Were there no warning signs, such as exertion-induced angina, a known symptom of such a condition? Would that not have been a cue to slow things down?
If her income level was too high to get Medicaid, why did she not work less in order to stay below the max and get coverage? Was she trying to earn more, so that she could get subsidies for an exchange-based policy?
We see that a major union has this case in its line of sight. What we don’t see is why this union didn’t help her out with a better job, with higher pay and benefits. Is the union only talking now that she’s tragically dead, and useful as a political chip? (How disgusting!)
When will we get the full story, and not just the political firebombs?
We blame the governor and the legislature because they chose not to expand Medicaid. I have to wonder if when Sean Hannity and his ilk paraded those LYING people in front of America to say that they were hurt by The ACA, if you had so many questions. Something tells me not. This woman, like a lot of other Americans, did not have health care for a very long time. Why do right wing men act like the answer to a woman’s problems is a husband? Her heart condition could very well have been exacerbated by the fact that she couldn’t afford dental insurance either. That changes nothing. It only makes it worse that Rick Scott, and other selfish Republicans like him, are causing people to die.
has anyone blamed the single mother of 3 for possibly not making the best choices in life? some of us bust our butts to support ourselves & now we’re also expected to take care of everyone else? I managed to graduate from college & make it to 40 without getting knocked up – despite the fact that my mother has 3 kids with 3 different men & have 2 sisters who also followed that path. I’ve worked as many jobs as possible & paid for my own schooling & finally own my home & have a great job. why did I struggle to do right just to be penalized by having to pay for the bad choices of others? I’m sick & tired of hearing that others are responsible for our bad lots in life. we’re responsible for ourselves. let’s teach people to make better choices. the more “free” cr@p we hand out – the worse society decays.
You aren’t even a woman. Please go troll somewhere else.
1) Medicaid eligibility is determined by more than income. Applicants must meet categorical eligibility in order to qualify. Without the ACA and Medicaid expansion, falling far below the poverty line is NOT enough to receive Medicaid.
2) Eligibility for programs, such as Medicaid, would not count her husband’s income, regardless of marital status, unless they are living in the same household.
3) It seems to me that if she did receive tax credits for her children, with an income of $9000/year, she most likely had other expenses she needed to pay with that money.
4) It is preposterous to suggest that a woman, who had three children depending on her for support, should stop working or work less to qualify for Medicaid. I know that, in the state of Texas, she would have had to have NO income in order to qualify for Medicaid/TANF (categorical eligibility). I’m sure she felt that wasn’t an option, as who would provide for her children’s needs?
5) Suggesting that she game the system or seek disability (a long and difficult process) when she was clearly able to work is ludicrous and one of the reasons many people despise the welfare system. There is something wrong with a system that rewards people who don’t try at all and penalizes those that do.
6) States who decline Medicaid expansion will still foot the bill for those who accept it, since it is a largely federally funded program.
*** Whatever decisions she may have made, good or bad, they should not have cost her her life or her children their mother! ***
In our state Pa. if you have court cost and are not paying them you are removed from Medicare.
Good for you. I wonder if you would feel differently if this issue affected your mother or sisters to the extent it did this Florida mother. Would you still sit in judgment then? It makes me sad to think that there are people like you out there who cannot begin to imagine a life other than the one they’ve lived themselves. Regardless of the choices this woman made, can you really be so callous as to say that death is what she deserved? God forbid you ever make a bad choice and the outcome is grossly out of proportion to your decision. I hope you would receive more compassion than you are apparently able to give.
P.S. We will all be footing the bill for Medicaid expansion, whether or not it is implemented in your state.
I agree. A single mother of 3 making 11k and she didn’t qualify for Obamacare subsidies? And to the person about making a “bad choice?” She made the same bad choice 3 times? I would have loved to have had 3 kids, but I couldn’t afford them so I had one…and now I’m supposed to pay state income taxes so people like Charlene can be irresponsible and have 3? When do the bleeding hearts stop making excuses for bad behavior and decisions and start holding people responsible for themselves and reproductive choices?
I’ve never depended on a man for anything. I’m what you would call a right winger. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in charity AFTER my own are taken care of = not FORCED charity in the way of income redistribution. I’m so fed up with other women making comments like “men want to control us” at the same time they’re DEMANDING everything be paid for by the governement.
Trolls belong under bridges, not on my site. ::POOF:: begone! You have no power here!
I agree with you, actually. I am a woman and have done the same for myself in life. I think its strange that the website owner would automatically accuse you of not being a woman then call you a troll. Any business owner like this website owner who has had business classes would know that you allow differences of opinions and invite discussions, not treat people the way she has.
Not that I have to explain anything to you, but the posts that I let stand don’t compare to the horrible things this TROLL said about Charlene Dill in ones that I did not allow on the site. No woman would have said what this TROLL said about another woman. If you don’t like the way I handle this site, feel free to keep it moving, there is nothing for you here.
Parasites, psychopaths and traitors are the only ones that murder innocent civilians in cold blood.
Her family should put a contract out on the traitors.
GOP = Greedy Oppressive Parasites.
In my letter to the FBI about your post on this *moderated* website, how shall I describe your appeal to incite murder-for-hire against public figures?
(Should I also include the conclusion that this sentiment is approved of by ‘mywomenonthemove.com’, since it was posted after review?)
What are you talking about? Stop being delusional!!
Monte, Monte, Monte- how has anyone been able to parse the news or navigate the medical industrial complex without your help? I’m sure that you have vast experience being an unskilled worker single parent. Despite your (obviously paid for) chapter and verse recitation of all her apparent failings, it was the corrupt Florida system that failed her and her three children. The disgusting irony is that Slick Rick Scott bought the governorship with something like $73 million of his OWN money. Money, by the way, he acquired running the hospital chain that perpetrated the largest Medicare fraud in history. He’s such a stand up guy he pleaded the Fifth more than 70 times during the investigation. He, and his pack of tea party yes men bear the moral responsibility, if not legal for this and other unnecessary deaths. You are clueless.
Hey Monte, where did you get your medical degree? Because if you don’t have one… you probably should probably be a little more cautious about what you say.
Rick Scott and the Republicans in the legislature have blood on their hands. They, along with the other states that did not take the Medicaid extension will be burning in hell.
This is the saddest thing that I have read in while. That poor woman just dropped dead at a stranger’s house because she could not afford preventative care. What will happen to her children?
I really hate to bring this up but if Charlene was so ill and poor why did she continue to have children without a way to support herself or her children. These are the others that must be addressed in poor communities across the country. If you love yourself don’t take on more than you could handle in life.
It amuses me when this question is asked by pro-lifers who would seek to keep women from having abortions. Are you pro-life, Michelle?
Yes Michelle, are you pro-life?
Yeah. Sure you “hate to bring it up.”
Did she deserve to die?
This comment is not only judgmental, but also irrelevant to the ongoing discussion.
GOP drones are without heart or conscience.
Not only is this irrelevent, but it’s offensive. Stop victim blaming when you don’t know anything about this woman’s situation.
Michelle Shore, I am always amused by people who claim that they ‘hate to bring it up’ right before they go ahead and ‘bring it up’. If you hate to make unkind statements about others, if what you are about to say gives you pause and prompts you to apologize before you express the thought, you are best of not expressing that thought.
There is a lot we don’t know about Charlene and never will. But it is entirely possible that she had her children within what she thought was the shelter of a stable marriage. To assume that she did anything otherwise… cheapens you more than it cheapens her.
Wow, my heart aches just for reading this story. What’s going to happen to her kids now?
I have to agree: the fascist radical conservatives like Rick Scott and Nimrata Haley are ALL responsible for Ms. Dill’s death. Plain and simple. The conservatives are the ones who are too lazy to do the right thing and implement Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.
Conservatives and “pro-life” people are truly the pro-death extremists here.
I am so sorry to hear this story. It really does break my heart. I don’t have health insurance either because I can’t afford the monthly premiums for Obamacare. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I have heard Obama say that everyone should be able to afford it and if they can’t it’s because they don’t have their priorities straight….they have cable, phones etc. when they shouldn’t blah, blah… what a load of shit. Harry Reid as also made remarks about people who don’t get it are lazy etc., so it isn’t just the Republicans….
Someone made the comment that Gov. Scott and Crist don’t care about us and unfortunately, I would say that is true of all politicians (irregardless of the party) and this comment is saying the same thing as one is Republican and one is Democrat.
Unfortunately, this is going to happen more and more because of people falling through the cracks.
My thoughts and prayers go out to her children, family and friends.
The ACA was written with a mandate for the states to expand Medicaid. It was the Supreme Court that decided that the Medicaid mandate part of the ACA was unconstitutional (with, I may add, very little in the way of precedent for that decision) and that states could decide one by one whether to expand Medicaid. With so many state governments in Republican hands, the outcome of that was predictable. Some Republican governors have accepted the Medicaid expansion funds — notably Rick Snyder in Michigan and John Kasich in Ohio. But, in states where the legislature has veto power over such decisions, you end up with messes like the one in Florida, where Rick Scott initially decided to accept the funds until pushback from the legislature caused him to backpedal. The coverage gap is the result of how the law was written, since the original law, before it was sliced and diced by SCOTUS, provided only for sliding-scale subsidies on the federal exchange to people who earned from 133% of the federal poverty-level wage to 200% of the poverty wage, at which point the subsidies would cease. People with Charlene’s level of income (below 133% of the federal poverty-level wage) were not expected to have to find coverage on the federal exchange — they were going to be covered by the Medicaid expansion mandate. That’s what created the coverage gap in which so many people find themselves.
Every poll done in FL has concluded the same results. Floridians do not want Obamacare.
More people have lost their insurance, premiums doubled, deductibles sometimes tripled, have lost their doctors/hospitals, all due to Obamacare.
Nothing is free in this life. Who do you think would be stuck with the tab once that one time money from the government expires? Oh, the taxpayers.
Thank God we have grown ups in office who understand the long term effects have this horrible bill. Floridians will remember this was passed by Dems and Dems only. If you thought 2010 was bad for Ds, just wait.
Actually, ma’am, that isn’t true, and Florida Blue has disputed that:
Now if you simply don’t want Obamacare, just say that. No need for lies.
300,000 “losing” their health insurance is a lie.
Those policies are cancelled because they are crap insurance – not meeting the minimum standards being set.
Every person getting a policy cancelled for this reason is GUARANTEED ISSUE a choice of insurance policies to replace it. None of these people are losing their insurance – they are merely switching to a better policy.
No one is paying too much either. If the reason you bought a crap policy is because you cannot afford real insurance, here is the good news: you qualify for a subsidy so that the insurance is affordable.
If you bought an inexpensive crap policy (which gives an illusion of coverage) even though you earn $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 or more per year, then you were shifting your health risk onto taxpayers by not being responsible for yourself. When you get that $100,000 hospital bill and do not pay it, the rest of us pay it through higher insurance premiums and state payments to reduce hospital losses. You can no longer shift your risk onto the rest of us.
This is the same argument & lies that were funded and peddled by the likes of the Koch Brothers with regards to Obamacare… And they have all been proven to be just that, barefaced lies…
You are not speaking for all Floridians so don’t be so presumptuous as to say we don’t want the Presidents healthcare plan. There are no “grownups in office” in the state of Flori-DUH,but I do see a lot of politicians with their heads shoved up their butts here. Many residents did want his plan or something better to address the need for healthcare insurance that’s been denied to many due to pre existing conditions or an inability to pay high premiums.Those of us caught in the middle like that poor woman that passed away won’t be able to afford even one of the very inept high deductible plans.
Governor Skeletor needs to be run out of office STAT.
I have a dear friend who is in this exact same position. She has serious health issues and cannot afford all of the medicine she should be on. She has repeatedly applied for Medicaid and continues to be denied. She tried applying for Obamacare and was told that she didn’t qualify because she should qualify for Medicaid!?!?!?!? How many more are falling through the proverbial cracks??? So here is my friend with a 6 year old daughter (her husband passed away from a sudden death heart attack when her daughter was only 8 months old) telling me if I drop dead I had better sue the pants off of some people for her daughter. This is pitiful!!!!! She has been denied for disability repeatedly as well. She is living on her widow’s benefits. I don’t know what to tell her to do. Any thoughts?
I sent you an email to get in touch with me.
How can the powers in Florida justify the suffering this woman and her children went through? Now the children are suffering without their mother. If the powers in Florida are stopping Floridians from receiving back the money that this woman and others like her paid then they should stand up and pay for her meds. How many of the Florida powers worked as many hard hours as she did? I’m guessing that people like this woman are paying for those in power to live a very comfortable life, which includes health insurance.
Monte Guerdis writes nonsense: ” Why blame the governor, when the ACA’s standards are obviously the problem? By what logic can anyone claim that $9000 for a household of four is “too much money” ?
Yes, what idiot thinks that $9000 is too much income to receive medicaid….Florida Republicans. Obamacare DOES provide for those who earn $9000 – it is the Medicaid Expansion. The Medicaid Expansion gives health care to those low income earners for free because Obamacare knows that someone at that level of income cannot pay premiums.
However, it is Florida REPUBLICANS who are in charge in Florida, and THEY rejected the Medicaid Expansion, which creates a large crack in the system where people like Charlene fall through.
Every STATE, not the federal government, chooses where to set the income levels in their state to receive medicaid….again the responsibility now of Florida Republicans.
Monet is correct – we SHOULD be angry – but we should be angry at those who caused this problem in Florida….Florida Republicans.
While I completely agree with most of the thrust of this article, I also think you’re missing the forest for the trees, and you need to expand the conversation just a bit. While it’s certainly true that Ms. Dill would likely still walk among us if not for Rick Scott, it’s equally true that she’d still be alive if she lived in the evil, freedom-hating, socialist “People’s Republic of Vermont” for example. She’d still be alive if HR 676 were passed. She’d still be alive if she lived in one of the hundreds of evil, freedom-hating, socialist countries like, you know, the People’s Republic of Canada. National health coverage is “politically unpalatable” in the US, you say? Well, I contend that MOST poll results say otherwise. Show me a poll of Canadians where a majority of them would trade their health care system for ours; that’ll never happen. It’s “politically unpalatable” to the enormously profitable health care industry, their armies of lobbyists, and spineless inside-the-beltway Democrats (who nonetheless don’t object to such coverage for themselves), in particular our President, who had the White House AND both houses of Congress for 2 years but instead openly ridiculed the Canadian system and put forth a scheme from the Heritage Foundation. Ms. Dill’s blood is equally on THEIR hands. Virtually EVERYTHING that defined progress in the 20th century (Social Security, unemployment insurance, the 40 hour workweek, medicare, female suffrage, the list goes on…) was supposedly “politically unpalatable” UNTIL THE PEOPLE SAID OTHERWISE. Progess is made through struggle and hard work, not timidity and “compromise”. No one, IN ANY STATE, needs to die for lack of health care. Let’s “grow” this conversation beyond the borders of that brutal third-world banana republic called Florida and set about insuring that this doesn’t happen ANYWHERE.
This really does go a little bit further than Obamacare. Yes, Charlene should have had access to expanded Medicare. BUT a woman working that hard should not be making such a paltry income. This is the United States of America. If people are willing a work a full time job, if they are willing to coble together enough part time hours to come up with 35 hours a week, they should be brining home enough money to take care of themselves and their families without having the endure the humiliation of having to ask for public assistance. Which brings us to… the need to increase the minimum wage. The need to prevent large employers from turning direct employ positions into contract work if that work is not truly temporary in nature (say an need for increased labor for 6 months or fewer).
For those readers who are hating on the ACA, here is something worth knowing. The ACA distributes funds to each of the 50 states every year for programs to help reduce hospital associated infections. There were 722,000 HAIs in U.S acute care hospitals in 2011. About 75,000 hospital patients with HAIs died during their hospitalizations. Anyone using a hospital, especially who has a central line (intravenous), a catheter, or an abdominal surgery is potentially at risk. It doesn’t matter what kind of insurance they have or what their income level is. Personally, I am very grateful for this benefit of Obamacare.
I am very sorry to hear of Charlene’s needlessly early death, of the sadness her family and friends experience from the loss of her presence.
I live in Washington state. We accepted Medicaid expansion and built our own exchange. I know of young people covered by their parents insurance, young people who were able to get coverage they couldn’t afford before. I know of a family of 2 folks in their late 50’s who reduced their monthly medical insurance expense from nearly $1,000 per month to just over $200. We Americans need to stop looking at one another and seeing a competitor, someone to judge. We need to start seeing sisters and brothers.
This is really sad. And I am not willing to understand the fact that 9.000$ annually is too much income for this program for a mother with several kids to feed.
It’s is some kind of political bullshit those high paid people do on expense (and lifes) the poor peoples backs.
I am sorry for the woman and I am relieved I am living in an european country and not in the U.S.
Healthcare is free and available for everyone in countries like e.g. Germany, France and the scandinavian countries. You may call them nanny states but if you do you are just blind for the truth that these systems work great and are economical fine. Much fewer people without a big bank account are left behind, like it is everyday reality in the U.S.
I’m not a woman, but a single 28 year old guy living in Florida, the land of hell. I came to pay my respect , and also be a similar voice to this courageous, and beautiful lady who is in a better place now. I too do not make enough for Obama care, but do not fit under the medicaid brqcket , so I do. It have insurance, and am not allowd to live. I’ve been suffering with a staph infection for three years now, and it is now clear that nobody cares about it, and I can’t get anywhere without coverage. My infection drains, and Festus up to marble sized boils, very painful, very bad. I know it’s in my bloodstream , hence my heart problems, brain damage I can literally feel, and other things this is causing. So again …..I’ll just be another dead Florida number to these people very soon. By the way, I’m neither Republican , nor Democrat , nor liberal ……just human.