Thursday, March 7, 2002

By Staff
Milking the Medicaid system
To the editor:
I just feel I have to write this and express an opinion. On the 6 p.m. news on Tuesday on WTOK-TV, there were two young women that were worried about what was going to happen to them and their families when Medicare goes broke, I will have to say I was very upset with the whole thing.
Here is one young white girl with two children already and another on the way and we did not hear of a daddy. But, she depends on Medicare to take care of her and her children. If you have two and you can't take care of them why have another.
Then you have a young black single mother with one at home and a newborn wondering how she is going to pay for her babies' doctor bill and one time she was in the hospital and it was thousands of dollars.
I work and try to have a policy at work where if I get sick enough to have to go to the doctor  which a lot of us don't do until we are about dead then the thousands of dollars the insurance did not pay, we try to send in $10 or maybe $25, or whatever we can.
As far as Medicaid goes, I think it is time some of these folks decided to take responsibility for their own, like I have to. When someone that is disabled or really needs some help, it is not going to be there because people like these have milked the system dry.
Sarah Hamrick
Stonewall
via e-mail
Distraught mother still seeks details of son's death
To the editor:
On Aug. 3, 2001, my 22-year-old middle son committed suicide while a student at Ole Miss. Larkin was a Chancellor's Scholar, former member of the Rebels baseball team, and former Sigma Chi pledge. Needless to say, his death devastated and shocked our family and friends.
On Wednesday, Aug. 8, we traveled to Oxford to the Lafayette County Sheriff's Department to retrieve Larkin's personal items and learn details of his death. We were treated appallingly by everyone, from the dispatcher at the front desk to the deputies. Here I was the mother of a dead son being attacked and treated hideously by the very people from whom I expected support. I am horrified that any law enforcement agency would conduct themselves in this manner.
Do you wonder why you are only now hearing from me ? I waited until Larkin's case was closed because I was afraid of repercussions concerning his case if I complained. I was not there to point fingers at anyone. I just wanted details of his death.
When Larkin's dad asked the deputy what time the call came in, the deputy did not know. Finally his father asked, "Isn't there a log book to give these details?" The list goes on and on with the answer always being "I don't know." All I wanted to know was what the officers knew.
It is too late to help me. But my desire is that no one should find themselves in this situation again. The alumni of Ole Miss need to take a firm stand against the mistreatment of our family. Over a month ago, I wrote the sheriff and board of supervisors … no one has replied with even an "I am sorry."
Perhaps all law enforcement officers need grief sensitivity training. How sad that it would be necessary to train people to show compassion.
Sue Honea
Magee
via e-mail