By Derrick Taylor
Life is busy on the corner of Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. People hurry in and out restaurants and stores. Cars rush by. But planted firmly at the intersection the other day was a truck from Touchstone Health. It’s a Medicare approved Health Maintenance Organization with a prescription drug program with the government. It was if there was no other way to stand out and grab attention.
A white man in a red jacket and dark hat approached people as they came to the
intersection. He stood out like a sore thumb. He positioned a small table by the truck.
Applications to sign up with Touchstone Health and flyers filled the tabletop.
He was eager to talk to people about their healthcare coverage and would stop people by
yelling, “Miss!” Rarely would they actually stop.
Eventually he did manage to stop a woman long enough to ask, “Do you have health care?”
She looked at him with a puzzled look. “No, they won’t give it to me,” she replied.
“You can get it with us if you make less than $27,000 a year,” he responded.
She smiled and explained that she was unemployed and had no income.
The man drew closer and asked, “What do you do for medicine?”
The woman, who spoke with an accent from the Islands, replied, “I just try to stay
healthy. They won’t give me anything until I turn 65.”
“You don’t qualify,” the man told her.
“That’s what I know,” she snapped back.
The man offered his pen as a token for taken the time to speak with him. She walked away
clutching the pen.
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