Actually, I got it Friday, but I'm just coming out of shock.
From a high of $150ish last winter (big old house built in 1906) my current gas heating bill is $398.20. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes, just stunned. This summer I reroofed my home, thinking it would help. Um, not so much.
Now, I'm 44, in relatively good health and self-employed. I can just bust my hump a little harder, sell a little more and schmooze a little sweeter. But what about the others?
Regrettably, in November the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission allowed natural gas companies to charge their neediest customers a four-month deposit on top of a reconnect fee.
From an editorial in the
South Bend Tribune. A
FOUR month deposit?
I've checked out all the programs that might help, expecting something like this (but I couldn't imagine
this) In every single case, each one of these programs, your heat has to be about to be turned off, disconnected, shut down, terminated for you to even be considered for any help.
How many elderly are going to go without this winter because they can't not pay the bill? My parents generation and others are people who have worked hard and paid their bills. I know for a fact that there are going to be thousands of elderly (and not so elderly) people choosing between food, medicine and heat. How many older people do you know that would go 3-4 months not paying their bill in order to recieve assistance?
Not a single proud older American that I know.
Nope, instead, they will cut their pills in half (if they can still get their pills), use hazardous heaters, turn up the stove high, eat mac & cheese, cut back on doctors visits to save transportation and pray for April.