Below I have posted two pieces: One is about one of my favorite poets, Dean Young. The other is about the need for a better health care system. We could all be in Dean Young's situation one day for one health problem or another.

Many middle class folks don't realize how close they are to economic hardship due to limits in our healthcare coverage. Many of us are all too clear. Consider donating on Dean's behalf and check out the piece from Physicians for a National Healthcare Program (PNHP) below. They are advocating for all of us.

A Letter from Robert Hass

As many of you may know, our brilliant Dean Young came very near to complete cardiac failure this fall. Dean's heart condition is congenital and he'd been living with it for a while, hoping for the best. By November of this year his heart was working at about 10% efficiency. His doctors at Seton Hospital, the university medical center in Austin were in the process of preparing him for a heart transplant when his heart began to fail altogether.

Three weeks ago they implanted external heart pumps as a temporary expedient. Dean is now out of intensive care and conscious and awaiting a heart transplant. That's the good news.

The difficult news is that, though insurance covers most of the costs of a heart transplant operation, there are typically between $100,000 and $250,000 in expenses before and after surgery not covered by insurance. In response to this fact of our medical system, there exists a National Foundation for Transplants through which friends of transplant patients can make tax-deductible donations to help cover their uncovered medical expenses. You can find details of how the foundation works at their website.

Dean's friends, hoping to help relieve him of that additional worry, have done the paperwork to sign him up for the NFT website and want you to know that they are grateful for help in any amount you can manage.

Here are the two simplest, most efficient ways to give:

1) Best, simplest way to contribute is go to this url link:
www.transplants.org/donate/deanyoung

Follow the directions to the donation mechanism--"Make A Gift."

Then go to: My gift is in honor of the following patient:

Then put in Dean Young's name.

2) You may also send a check:
If you'd prefer to send your gift by mail, please send it to the

NFT Texas Heart Fund,

5350 Poplar Avenue, Suite 430,

Memphis, TN 38119.

Please be sure to write "in honor of Dean Young" on the memo line.

Thanks--and happy New Year.

Bob Hass

FAQ: Does my money go to the NFT or to Dean?

Answer: Your money goes directly to helping Dean.

-- originally posted at http://www.squawvalleywriters.org/deanyoung.html

Note:

1) it is a tax-deductible donation for you, and doesn't count as income for him.

2) the online form is slightly confusing.

Under "donation information" with third bubble, "my gift is in honor of the following patient" and write in "Dean Young." Don't fill out the next part that reads "honorariums/memorials."

Some Dean Young poems: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/dean-young