Interesting Perspective

I was unable to "Blog" for the past 8 days! This post was intended for November 20th, 2008

I have been listening to Randy, Bill and Linda for a few decades it seems, and though, as many would agree, the topic areas are interesting, current but shadowed by lack of knowledge or understanding of them.

We garble at just about anything, human nature I suppose, but today one man’s garble got me thinking. He actually had a great concern, question and foresight.

He was discussing how a family member had been ill and recently separated from her husband at 60 years old. As I best understood the situation, this lady was now able to go to work, but only in a labor type and minimum wage capacity. Her previous illness made her dependant on medication that would be out of her reach in a minimum wage job. Apparently, she applied to HRLE for support/subsidy after she’d started working. She was turned down. Her 30 hours a week at $8.00 was more than the cut-off threshold would allow. The gentleman said “my relative was offered by a social worker to quit her job, not only would they pay for her drugs, but her rent, utilities, special diet, medical taxi, and to boot $600.00+ to live on.

Well just imagine! Never mind, you do not have to, what this man said is true, not just of his family, but of any family. This is across the board policy that fits anyone in this or any similar situation. The policy really reads; “all or nothing”, which really is nothing.

I am not the best mathematician, but come on, if we take 100 people and give them basic income support with drugs built in, it will cost approximately $1,470,000.00. But does cost stop there? Absolutely not, each year you can add $48,000.00 for administrative cost, utilities, special considerations and needs $200,000.00. An approximate total of $1,718,000.00, all or nothing dollars and all they ask for was a drug card. $180,000.00 a year!

Is Newfoundland and Labrador broke, or is it simply a matter of our fiscal and program policy being written and delivered by clueless idiots. This isn’t rocket science, but it is black and white, and it’s easy to read!

Brudder