Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - A Louisville man with terminal heart failure is without medical care after his Medicaid coverage was cancelled. 

Even if it’s unlikely your family will ever be faced with this kind of crisis, the family of Chris Whitmer is hoping that you care about his plight.  Yes, the government does have programs to help the poor with their medical care, but Whitmer says he makes about $27 too much per month to qualify for the care that could save his life.

“It’s eye opening. It’s shocking.  It’s disturbing,” says Chris Whitmer.

One year ago, he was fine; pulling pallets and unloading trucks for Kroger.  But when his wife Harriett returned home from surgery for her Crohn’s disease one day last March, she found him collapsed on their floor.  Out of the blue, Chris was diagnosed with end stage heart failure.

“Patients who have this degree of heart failure the doctors told us, don’t last very long,” says Harriett.

But there was a sliver of hope.  The family was already on Medicaid.  After Chris’s first pacemaker had problems, a second surgery gave him a pacemaker/defibrillator and he started the workups to see if he would qualify for a heart transplant.

But when he needed it most, Chris’ Medicaid coverage was terminated because his family income exceeds Medicaid limits.   According to Harriett Whitmer, their income exceeded the limits by something like $27, less than $30 per month.

The family live off of Social Security and disabilities solely.  Chris and their two children all draw disability based on Chris’ employment history.  Because their daughter was diagnosed with autism, her disability payment is higher.  But the family total is still under $2000 per month.

The Whitmer’s live in this mobile home in southwest Louisville.  Chris has mostly stopped going to the doctor because he can’t afford the appointments.  And because his monthly prescription drug bill totals more than $700, he cherry picks the drugs he can afford.

Since Chris’s Medicaid was canceled in December, cardiologist Shanker Chandiramani has seen him twice, both times at no charge.

“But the frustration part is when he needs the blood work which I cannot provide or the x-ray which I cannot provide, or if he needs some minor surgery, or so, that’s where the problems come in,” says Dr. Shanker Chandiramani.

Dr. Chandiramani needs an X-ray to determine if Chris’ second pacemaker is having the same problem as the first.  But his office doesn’t have an X-ray.  Medicaid would cover it elsewhere, if only Chris had Medicaid.

No one from the Kentucky cabinet for health and family services would talk to WHAS11 News on camera, citing medical privacy laws.  But by phone and e-mail, they explained the bottom line saying that the rules are in place so that they serve the most vulnerable. 

“If we make exceptions,” a spokeswoman says, “That’s essentially fraud.”

Their only solution is a sort of deductible plan that would leave the Whitmer’s with just $350 per month to live on.

According to Louisville’s leading Medicaid attorney, there isn’t much they can do.

“It’s so extremely complicated that if you don’t fall into on e of the categories that is very clear, then you are going to have some problems,” says Brian Borellis.

If Medicaid continues to turn him down, Chris’ hope is that he can live long enough to qualify for Medicare.  He says he’ll be eligible for Medicare in about two years.