Man Joins Army To Pay For Wife's Chemo

As part of its Bearing Witness 2.0 project, the Huffington Post is rounding up a few of the best local stories of the day.

Bill Caudle, 39, enlisted in the Army so that he could get health insurance help pay for his wife's ovarian cancer treatment, reports Mark Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bill was laid off from his job at a plastics company in March, where he had worked for 20 years, and searched for a new job for a few months before signing up so that his wife and high school sweetheart, Michelle, would be guaranteed chemotherapy. On their own, the Caudles' insurance cost them $1,370 each month, which they could not afford on Michelle's part-time salary at a fast food restaurant.

The four-year commitment means Bill will miss all of his youngest daughter's four years of high school. Chelsea, the daughter, cried when her mother told her. Bill left for processing and basic training October 6. The next day, once he was officially processed, his Army health coverage started.

(The Huffington Post previously reported a similar story about a woman named Rebecca Johnston who joined the military for health and education benefits for her family.)

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Ron and Diana Ames were temporarily homeless in the early 1980s after Ron lost his job. They pledged that they would never be that way again, but hard times have left them flirting with homelessness, reports Jim Martin of the Eerie, Penn., Times-News. Early this year they nearly lost their home after medical bills from Diana's broken leg bankrupted the two.

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In Waco, Texas, a nonprofit has started buying up foreclosed homes, repairing them, and leasing them to potential homebuyers, reports Cody Winchester of the Waco Tribune-Herald. NeighborWorks, which is a nation-wide organization, started operating locally last year, naming its initiative PEARLS, which stands for "Purchase Efficient, Affordable homes; Rehab, Lease and Sell," according to president and CEO Roy Nash. So far they have bought 20 foreclosed of vacant properties in Waco, and all of them are either occupied or being fixed up in preparation for someone to move in.

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Sign of the times: Neil McCurry Jr. went from financing home loans as bank president to auctioning them off after they went into foreclosure. John Hielscher, of the Sarasota, Fla., Herald Tribune, reports that McCurry left his job late last year to become a private consultant. His first client: Superior Bank, who bought his startup Peoples Community Bank in 2007. McCurry is now selling off houses and condos after his old bank kicked the residents out in foreclosure-wrecked Florida.

HuffPost readers: Seen a good local story? Heard about a heroic judge, neighbor, or doctor helping people stay in their homes? Tell us about it! Email [e-mail].

Comments

[basilwhite]

If we provide universal health care, who will join the Army?

[PorkyDomesticus]

Ugh, it's quite a country you guys have there - a man has to risk his own life just to save the life of his wife. You know, here in Aus we are nowhere as rich a country as the US,but an outrage like this would never happen - Medicare would look after the wife's treatment and the husband wouldn't have to risk getting his head blown off.

[landoffreee]

For a more perfect unions we must have:

Jobs,job securi.ty, job benefits, universal pre school-K.12, housing, affordable college education affordable health are that doesn't ban.krupt sic.k families

good articles; http://ow.ly/dmzm

a better society is one that creates opportunity & while providing safety nets and welfare programs for disadvantaged

[webwriter]

Kudos to the father, but my question is: Does health care in the military cover pre-existing conditions, which is what his son has?

[COPerez]

Yes, it does. It's "government run health insurance AND government run health care."

Scary, huh?

[mcmutter]

Do the Conservaturds ever do anything for the people of our own nation ?

[jalowe1957]

Speaking of the man forced to join the Army to pay for his wife's chemotherapy, I know of some people here in Southern California who told me they are now being forced to apply for Social Security Disability and SSI not only because gainful employment has become increasingly harder to find, they also have medical problems creeping up as well.

[Topsailsman]

Well, as the conservatives say, they should just go get a job. Oh, there are no jobs because Wall Street crashed the economy and corporations sent everything else offshore? Well then, start a business. Oh, thousands of businesses are failing due to lack of sales because of the recession? Well, then go f yourself. If all the unemployed starve, then we will no longer have an unemployment problem. Conservative ideology, bankrupt.

[hoobit]

But can one start a business and hope to hire anyone? The health care insurance premiums they'd have to co-pay for/with their employees...

Arrgh! I can't think about the insanity of "employer provided" health insurance anymore ~ makes my head spin. And not in a constructive way, either...more like in an: 'it wants to explode' way.

[peefsmom]

* HOW'S THAT "FREE" MARKET WORKIN' FOR YA? *

[roshni]

Good question, isn't it?
A lot of other countries think we are barbarians because of the way we treat our sick people.

[OC4Obama4Pres]

And they are correct.

[StopMakingSense2]

Start a new program "Canon Fodder For A Cure". This is a national disgrace. We used to lead now we can't even follow...

[PWM]

Many servicemen families are on food stamps - no joke.

Republicans had money for jets that could not fly in the rain but heaven forbid we treat our service people like human beings.

[Americanium]

Damn America...

What the heck is going on??

[mjtaylor22]

hey we don't need no stinking health insurance reform the insurance companies are doing just
public option to bring down prioces
who needs that in america land of the rich
and the broke and homeless...no middle class
who needs affordable healthcare options go to a charity,
or sumptin, grow up and pay you an arm n leg for insurance.......
no privatize medicare, and see how many seniors really face death panels in dealing with for profit insurers

[condor101]

I read a story a few months ago that a father joined the army to get health insurance for his young son. Soon afterwards, he was killed in Iraq. Now the grandfather of the young boy has to take care of him.

Hundreds of thousands of people have joined the armed forces to get a scholarship for college and/or health insurance. It's disgraceful that our government conspired with Big business to allow college education and medical services to be un-affordable, leading people to have to join the military.

I for one would never allow my children to join the military. If guys like Cheney and Bush could avoid the vietnam war through their family connections, there is no reason for people to risk their lives either.

[wilsonveteran]

You are lucky to live in America because you or your family does not have to join the military there will always be someone else to do it for you. But when your kids grow up and they ask you what you did for your country you can tell them nothing others did it for me. It will be just like your health care and your other government handouts. When your kids ask you what you did to get all of that you can once again say nothing other people give it to us. Other people work for us. So rely on other people through the government and you can proudly say I did nothing for the benefits I have. I live off of other people.

[Topsailsman]

Yes, it is true that all of the people who voted for Obama have never worked and are all on welfare. People who are moderates and progressive never join the military. They just sit around.

[texastrixie]

This is why we need another draft that would force EVERY young person to serve this country. You could choose military service and spend 2 years, or national service (non-combat status) and serve 3 years. There would be no exceptions. You would have to enforce a longer term of service for those who don't risk their lives to insure this is fair. Nobody could get out of serving - not pregnant women, young parents, the rich, etc. Unless you were bedridden, you'd have to serve. It would have the added positive effect in that those with physical disabilities would be trained to work, or their previous training utilized, thus proving their abilities as workers. Even today, the vast majority of blind individuals in this country, regardless of training, cannot find jobs.

[RatgurlSD]

Your perspective is myopic. My husband served his country for a decade and is far more liberal than I. He's been shot, cut up, and now does not receive any benefits from the military, as he has been out for a number of years. He's worked his arse off to support himself and his family, as well as to give back to his community. That whole "giving back to the community" tends to be a "liberal" belief. What have YOU done for your country?

Do try to not generalize when you speak of other people & their beliefs.

[roudy]

the last time the Military did anything positive for this country was World War Two. Everything since then has just been playing tin soldier.

[PWM]

People should not have to join the military just to get healthcare.

[jay1975]

If your kids decide to serve after they turn 18, you no longer need to "allow" them to serve.

[April22]

Welcome to America in the 21st .century!!!

Western civilization has not evolved quite as much as we would all be led to believe. Little wonder why America has yet to fully educate their population. Power and empire are still first and foremost and at the expense of the expendable-rather like a Dicken's novel. Circumstances become more and more dire for most-unemployed, under-employed, uninsured, and unsure of surviving the future.

Yet, we read of bank executives still being paid large salaries and bonuses, flying at whim on jets and living the lives of aristocrats, while so many are hard pressed to buy bread.

Welcome to America in the 21st. century!

[wilsonveteran]

The comments to this story show just how weak progressives are as individuals. Here is a man who had the courage and the conviction to do what ever it takes for his family. If he was like many of the posters here he would have just cried that he should have his medical care just given to him instead he took responsibility. Those on this post have shown their true colors and their true character. Why work for anything, take responsibility for anything, when you can have the government do it for you.

[rhurc]

Truth really stings liberals and they fight viciously against it. Prepare yourself for lots of hate-filled responses!!

[PWM]

Do you even know what a liberal is?

Picture the founding fathers, liberals one and all.

[endlessirony]

I am so glad conservatives are blessed with psychic abilities and able to tell what every liberal would be willing to do when someone they love is in a life and death situation.

[hoobit]

wilsonveteran - I hope this isn't taken as a "hate-filled response," but I do have to wonder how it is a 'good thing' that a man was forced to join the military just so his wife could get the medical treatment she needed? Does it show he has/acted on "the courage and the conviction to do what ever it takes for his family" or does it show he, really, had *no* other option? And how much sense does it make that, by joining the military, at any moment he can be called away from her as she undergoes her treatments?

Just seems to me that chemo is tough enough all on its own...knowing one's spouse might not be there with you as you undergo it, I would imagine, would add to the stress and horribleness of the treatments, not to mention to the constant stress of the possibility of the cancer returning and the spouse being 'away' for an extended period as you continue the battle...alone.

That, and, heaven forbid, if the treatments do not have the desired outcome (total remission and/or cure) of the ovarian cancer, how horrific that he is not able to spend every moment he can with her while she is still alive *because* he had to enlist for her to even have a 'fighting chance'? Is what he was forced to do *really* what we want our fellow citizens to *have* to do?

[denlong]

so you are saying that she should have skipped the chemo?

[hoobit]

---I notice, too, you have "veteran" in your screen name ~ if it isn't too forward of me, might I ask what type of medical care you (and your family) have?---

[rhurc]

that'd be the same type of medical care this fella has opted for him and his chemo requiring wife.. smart move on his part, eh?

[roudy]

This poster of course has that socialist government lifetime health care from the VA.

[WorriedParent]

This kind of circular thinking, and COMPLETE lack of analytical reasoning skills is the result of the intentional mis-education of the American people that has been systematically carried out over the past 30+ years.

There is a MONUMENTAL difference between sacrificing your life for your family and country in a time of aggression against your country, and sacrificing your life because you cannot get cisplatin and paclitaxel to save your wife from a tortuous cancer death.

You have to be BLIND not to see the difference.

Worried Parent
Physician and proud wife of an Army Veteran with a 15 year service record

(Consider doing the following:
1. Remove right foot from stirrup
2. Lift pelvis off saddle
3. Bring right foot to the same side as left foot
4. Remove left foot from stirrup
5. Jump off your high horse
Thank you.)

[GreatNews27]

It's finally working. Fueling the war maching by starving the population into joining the army. Bush's final solution.

[santafesam]

It does seem like the military/government is becoming the employer of choice these days, since they still provide health insurance, pension benefits etc, and jobs in the private sector are becoming scarcer.

[rhurc]

Well, I wonder why that would be.. Hmm.. Higher business taxes, more requirements on employers, more regulation, higher wage requirements.. It seems the private sector is being squeezed at every turn. Not to worry.. Those that get laid off can be scooped up and employed by a big government program.. which of course only gets it's money to pay people by stealing it first from other people. won't it be great when we all just work for uncle same making $55k a year with no chances of ever earning more than anyone else?

[rasharp]

no the comment was you should not have to join to get and education, and yes i joined for and education and to help my family, but in the greatest country that is not what i should have to do to get the basic requirement in of life. i love and honor the men and women in the military, but i would perfer if they went IT WOULD BE because they wanted to serve, not because they were driven by basic human need to enter the military. NO ONE WHE SERVES THEIR COUNTRY IS ANYTHING OTHER THAN A HERO TO ME.