Another aspect of the health care crisis

Caregivers. Been there, did this. I didn't lose everything, but by the time my husband died I was skating on the edge and shuffling debts among various low interest credit card offers to get by. It's unbelievably scary and stressful, on top of the horror that is a spouse's terminal illness. I believe one of the first commenters on that story pointed out the obvious - that other industrialized nations make compassionate care for those at the end of life a priority. Here, we ruin the survivors. I identified with this woman's comment that her husband had served in Korea - mine had served in Vietnam. When I went to the VA to ask for hospice care, which was one of those ironclad rights a veteran could expect at the end of life, I learned that now you have to be destitute to qualify for the VA hospice. Another one of the many changes wrought by BushCo, while we were distracted with the big evils, they were hard at work committing thousands of smaller ones. Working hard all of your life and serving your country doesn't mean shit anymore.