Working two jobs, scrimping on routine expenses, living without lights, and hoping she can manage her asthma without needed hospitalization, is a week-to-week challenge for Paula Dubose, a home health aide. Her employer provides no sick days and four vacation days. She was hospitalized three times this year alone – once resulting in a month off work. The hospital garnished her wages, requiring her to work as much overtime as she can to pay her rent and other bills. She works in the evening for H&R Block, leaving no time to look for other jobs or job training to improve her skills.

“I’m living paycheck-to-paycheck,” she says. “I can’t even spare $5. I work overtime just to make ends meet. I have heat but no lights.”

Dubose gets her annual medical check-up at the Bruce Douglas Health Center and her asthma medicine is provided free of charge from the Cabrini Clinic. She has been uninsured throughout her 20-year work life, except for a short period of employment with the Visiting Nurses Association. Any serious illness or injury would leave her destitute.

Photo: Donna Terek