Last July, Larry and Linda Drain
made national news when they went public with their decision to divorce after 33 years of marriage solely so that Linda could qualify for Medicaid and receive treatment for her epilepsy. The Drains went public in an attempt to pressure their governor in Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam (R) to do the right thing and accept Medicaid expansion. Larry had embarked on a letter-writing campaign to Haslam, and at that point had sent one every day for 44 days.
Since then, Larry has written a ton more letters—all still completely ignored by Haslam—but has also organized an army of advocates to pressure the governor and legislature.
This week, they organized a rally in front of the Tennessee Capitol and delivered nearly 48,000 petition signatures to the governor’s office asking him to expand the program. […]
"My wife and I have been separated now for 10 months," Larry Drain told ThinkProgress in an interview. "My idea is that I should get to live with my wife. It's nothing radical."
It's a story that compelled tens of thousands of people to sign on to his petition, which is entitled "Gov. Haslam: Expand TennCare and Let Me Stay With My Wife!" Within the text, however, Larry is careful to note that "we're just two people out of more than 161,000 who can't access affordable healthcare in Tennessee" and "there are countless other stories just like ours throughout the state."
"I know we're not the only couple that does this. I am living now in a building where one man lives seven apartments down the hall from his wife," Linda Drain told ThinkProgress. "It's all because of the rules for health care."
The rally did force Haslam to
address the issue, and the Drain's situation, publicly. He has relented to the point of saying he'd consider a plan "that we can get approved, that the state can afford, where it doesn’t crowd out everything else in our budget." That is progress for the Drains—this is the first time he has said anything at all recognizing their existence, much less their situation. That's a victory for them, one that they'll keep pushing: "Our message is always the same: Ordinary people make a difference. My wife and I are extremely ordinary people. […] But our idea is that citizens of the United States are supposed to be advocates for the public good."