Income Test For Benefits Challenged

The Hartford Courant ^ | January 13, 2003 | KIM MARTINEAU, Courant staff writer

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Muhammad Munshi, a subsistence farmer from Pakistan, came to America last year.

But since his massive stroke just two days after moving here with his wife last March, Munshi, 69, sees only what's visible from a hospital bed in his son's dining room. He can't talk. He can't eat or breathe without help.

He could live for years like this except for one problem. It costs $1,000 a month to keep him alive and already the money is gone.

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First of all, I'm confused why, in Connecticut, $1,000 a month is an undue burden to sacrifice for care of a loved one. Most working families pay more than that for day care for their kids. The amount is relative but $1K per month is pretty cheap medical care for such a sick guy. A nursing home here would rack up $1000 in less than one week.

For me the real question is, should a family's income be taken into account when deciding on state medical benefit eligibility and/or level? Congress has given the authority to state taxpayers to decide.

The INS's "Diversity Visa" program might have some responsibility here, it seems, too.

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[Vigilanteman]

The INS's "Diversity Visa" program might have some responsibility here, it seems, too.

One has to wonder why a subsistence farmer from a hostile 3rd world country and his wife in their late 60's are given a visa to live in Connecticut. Are there places where his farming skills would be saleable there? I rather doubt it.

Maybe the diversity visa's program funding should be raided to send this poor soul and his wife back to his home country, where dollars go a lot farther.