MICHAEL PEREZ / Staff Photographer
Jean Hawk at home in Tower City, Pa. Her kidney-transplant medicine costs around $2,000 a month.
Falling Through
Casualties of the Health Insurance Crisis
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Cuts force transplant patient to take chances.
Jean Hawk couln't pay for her drugs after a kidney transplant.
The government paid for Jean Hawk's kidney transplant and most of her anti-rejection drugs. But her drug coverage lapsed after three years. Hawk quit her job just before her company laid off workers, thinking she would get Social Security disability. But she didn't. For months, she economized by cutting pills in half and risked destroying her kidney. Finally a local nonprofit got her free drugs through two programs. Her case shows some of the ways people can lose health insurance before they turn 65.
Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com.
Contact staff writer Michael Vitez at 215-854-5639 or mvitez@phillynews.com.
