My name is Jerry Deschamps and my wife is Kathleen. We live in Concord, New Hampshire, and we are Health Care Voters because we know how hard it is to depend on the health care system right now in the United States.

Kathleen and I met at a dance one month after Kathleen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. During a slow song, Kathleen told me she has the disease and asked me if I knew what it is. Well, I did because I had a friend Buddy who had recently lost his struggle with MS. Only 45 years old, he left behind two young sons who had watched their father’s physical and mental health deteriorate before them.

It was quite a shock, then, the news Kathleen was sharing with me. I didn’t let it stop me, though – Kathleen was so attractive, and so honest, that I immediately fell for her. That was 10 years ago. We eventually married after a courtship. Things were good, but Kathleen’s MS is chronic progressive, and progress it has – along with her dementia.

Five years ago, we realized that I needed to become a full-time caregiver. Kathleen had given up her own job by this point because of her illness. I left my job at Health and Community Services in Nashua, taking out my pension to provide us a nest egg.

Now, up until this point, Kathleen had health coverage assistance through the state, and we paid our part, too. When I took out my pension, though, I was contacted by the state and told I’d have to spend down the pension or we’d lose assistance because we had money in holding. Basically, we’re not allowed to save a small reserve for emergency situations. We spent the money, bought a car so we could demonstrate the spending - but what good is a car when you can’t afford the gas that goes into it? We were forced into substandard living.

What’s worse is now I can’t even get a job again or we risk losing Kathleen’s coverage. This past year I worked for a few months through the Senior Community Service Employment Program. It was part-time on a rotating basis, in addition to my full-time job as a caregiver for Kathleen. A few weeks ago, I rang the office of a program that helps us pay for household needs like gloves, Depends, Benadine swabs, as well as co-pays. We hadn’t received the support this year and I was concerned why. "Because you worked," I was told. For a minimum wage of $5 plus per hour, we lost important financial help worth much more.

Luckily, we found an advocate who helped us re-instate the support, but the point is that I’m 56 years old, I have no savings because I was forced to spend it, and I can’t work because we’ll lose coverage for Kathleen. I have nothing. I have my wife and I love her. But for the rest of my time here, I won’t have any finances to support myself.

Kathleen and I decided a few years ago that what we could do is take action for others in the same position. In late 2004, the New England chapter of the MS Society contacted us to ask for our help advocating for MS to be placed in NH’s catastrophic illness fund.

We worked extremely hard. By giving our testimony, pounding the pavement, and making endless phone calls, we were able to build awareness that MS is a debilitating disease. In 2005, we won our battle. Kathleen is the first person in New Hampshire with MS to receive funding from the catastrophic illness fund that now includes MS.

Our next challenge is to fight for caregivers. People give up everything to care for their loved ones, and in this country there is little to no support system for caregivers. Care-giving affects your physical health, your mental health, your career, your social life – and it’s worth it. But we need more support. Right now, Kathleen and I live on less that $683 per month. This is our life. What concerns us more are the countless others with a debilitating illness who don’t have an advocate for them. If I were not here to maneuver through the politics with Kathleen, there might not be the additional food, housing and medical support.

We are Health Care Voters because health care is our life. We joined New Hampshire for Health Care this year to help educate others about the serious health care crisis affecting millions of Americans. We’re collecting signatures for new Health Care Voters. Last week, we signed up 100 people. With the first-in-the-nation Primary in New Hampshire, we are also asking each of the presidential candidates what they will do to improve health care in this country if they are elected.

We need a president who puts health care at the top of the agenda. Kathleen and I are hoping this election will be the one that gets us a Health Care president.