To the editor,
Let me start by saying I’m a retired American vet who served during the Vietnam Era. I was wounded while serving my country and 50 years later still have scars on my arm where I was hurt. I went to the vets hospital in West Haven and was told under the current guidelines I didn’t qualify for medical benefits. Well I won’t bore you with the long, time consuming battle that occurred and finally got the decision reversed only to find out I had to make co-payments and it wasn’t any less expensive than carrying my own insurance, not to mention I had to travel 50 miles (round trip) and use their doctors.
Well needless to say I don’t go there any longer and with the sanitary conditions they’re currently facing I’m glad for that. So now I pay my own medical insurance and worry about increased premiums, reduced benefits and larger co-pays.
Now for Social Security. I’ve worked my whole life since I was 16 years old and paid into the system that I was told would take care of me in my senior years. Well needless to say you can’t live on what they give you. But now we have to worry about it being reduced or taken away.
I sit and wonder how did the great American Dream of being in a rocker on the front porch get changed to worrying about surviving day to day and trying to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. As a senior I feel my country is telling me I’m no longer needed and that I’ve become just a burden on the system they’re putting in place. I wonder if our forefathers, who started fought and died for our country, would be proud to see what we’ve become. Are you?
Charles LaCroix
Beacon Falls
