Thought He’D Lost It All, Then Medicare Bailed

Jim Holmes never figured his country would sacrifice him.

But he’s the loser in the battle to control the federal budget. Despite Jim’s amputated limbs, two life-threatening diseases and crushing medical expenses, the government won’t grant him Medicare help for two years - until he proves his disabilities are permanent.

“I’m 54, worked all my life, paid taxes,” Jim grouses in the slightly slurred speech that remains from his last stroke. “When I get into a crunch, what was it all for?”

Jim’s no whiner.

During his 15-year struggle with diabetes, he’s lost both legs. Still, he’s so upbeat that he visits new amputees at Kootenai Medical Center in a T-shirt bearing his nickname - Old No Toes.

“He’s a great guy. His sense of humor is amazing,” says physical therapist Laurie Burnette. “He’s so encouraging to all the other patients.”

Jim’s also had a heart attack and surgery to create seven bypasses to his heart. He’s had two strokes that stole the use of his right hand and a third of his eyesight. As if all that wasn’t enough, he was diagnosed with cancer this year.

“I have tried to figure out what I did wrong in life to end up like this,” he says, steering his electric wheelchair toward his water pitcher. The 22 pills he takes each day dry his mouth.

“I think I was meant to talk to others, give them a new perspective.”

He reluctantly ended his 25-year teaching career 18 months ago after he lost his second leg. He knew life would dissolve quickly into a daily struggle to make ends meet.

Health insurance and medications cost him $1,200 a month. That leaves little to live on from his retirement pension and disability checks from Social Security.

Still, his good nature didn’t darken until he tried to apply for Medicare last December, after the Social Security Administration declared him completely disabled.

He was told to come back in two years. Social Security doesn’t give Medicare money to disabled people under 65 until they prove their disabilities are permanent.

Jim isn’t sure he’ll make it two years - physically or financially.

“I think they’d like you to die off so they don’t have to mess with you,” he says.

There are no exceptions to the two-year wait, says Tom Andreason, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s Social Security specialist. Tom judged 10,000 disability cases for Social Security before taking a job with the senator.

The mandatory wait saves the government money, he says. During two years, injuries heal and disabilities disappear. People also die. The survivors win the aid.

If Jim had qualified for Social Security’s assistance program for the poor, medical coverage - Medicaid - would have come with the package.

But his retirement and the modest Rathdrum home he owns with his wife, Marilyn, bumps him just out of eligibility range.

Jim can’t afford to give up his health insurance. Since last December, he’s spent 90 days in the hospital.

Lawmakers want to help, but aren’t sure how.

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do, but we’ll try,” says Mike Tracy, Sen. Craig’s communications director. “There may be options that may not fall within Social Security or Medicare. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

No one disputes that Jim has contributed his share to Social Security and Medicare over 25 years on the job. He loved teaching fourth grade at Dalton Elementary so much that he worked long after most people would have quit.

After his eyesight dimmed seven years ago, the school district hired an aide for him. After doctors amputated his gangrenous big toe four years ago, Jim put it in a jar. Students who learned their multiplication tables won a look at it.

“Fourth graders love gross,” he says, chuckling.

His aide continued to help him in the classroom after he lost one leg. He finally called it quits in 1997 after his second amputation.

“I can’t think of a better job,” he says wistfully. “I flunked fifth grade myself and dropped out of high school. I hated school. Then one day it hit me that school could be fun if the teacher had a little heart.”

Now he wants the government to have a little heart.

“This Medicare law is wrong. If we never get it changed for me, we have to get it changed for everyone else,” Jim says. “This is certainly not the way I had retirement planned.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: SPEAKING OUT Jim Holmes enjoys speaking to groups about his career and how he’s handled his disabilities. To reach him, call 687-0973.