Humberto Lichi

A Lehigh Acres man, who doctors have told him that he is in the fourth and final stages of lung cancer, is upset that he can’t get help through Medicaid because he has been told he makes too much money.

Humberto Lichi, 77, of Andros St., says he has found it difficult to get answers about Medicare and Medicaid and he is left going through chemo therapy every week and worrying how the bills are going to be paid.

“I can’t find any help, any information. All they tell me is that I make too much,” Lichi said. “All I have is my Social Security which isn’t much.”

Lichi said that when he tries to pay the bills left from what Medicare doesn’t pay, there is little left and sometimes for food and other necessities of life. And he has learned to go without the foods he likes in order to try to ahead of his medical bills.

“That what they told me at the Social Security Office in Fort Myers. It’s just like being cold about it.”

Celeiba Lichi

Lichi says doctors found cancer in July of last year and ever since, he has been under some type of treatment. But what Medicare doesn’t pay is hard for him to come up with. He has gone through whatever savings he had and now not knowing when he may die, the worry over money is almost more than he can take.

“The cancer began in my lungs,” he said. “And now they say it has spread throughout my entire body,” said Lichi, a native Cuban who lived in Miami with his wife, Celeiba, and moved together to get away from Miami. He said he had a sister living in Lehigh and when they visited, they came to like Lehigh because it is so different than the Miami area.

His wife is also ill with kidney disease.

Humberto Lichi said he still pays $548 on a house mortgage, around $230 a month for electricity and $140 a month for water and sewer along with a phone, gasoline for the car to get to doctors’ appointment and groceries.

“We are able to get $99 each a month to help buy groceries. That comes from the. Dept. of Families and Children. And we appreciate all of that, but sill it is hard to pay the bills.

“They just came out and told me I made too much money to get additional help from Medicare or Medicaid. And yet I came here from Cuba and worked for years as an air condition mechanic and pay my taxes and tried to make a living.

“Friends tell me we should do this or that, but none of that helps. We don’t know who to talk to really understand how to get help to pay for medical bills,” Lichi said.

Living with them and helping them to survive, he said, is a step-son, Carlos Sigues, 51, who is also disabled.

“But he pitches in as much as he can,” Lichi said.

The family speaks English, but at home, their native language is Spanish. Sometimes it is difficult for someone who doesn’t understand their English.

Asked if they had applied for help in obtaining food from some of the churches in Lehigh and the answer was no. Because of language difficulties, they said they had not gone elsewhere to seek food.

“All I know is that the Lord will take me when he’s ready and all I can do is the best that I can,” he said.

“But the American dream when I came here has melted away because it is hard to pay for medical bills at the end of your life.

“We wish there was someone who could give us good advice as what we should do to get some help. I am an American and I have spent a lifetime here and have worked hard and have paid a lot of high taxes. Now it seems hard to get any real help when you’re down and under.

“And all I am told is that I make too much money and we are living from week to week and hand to mouth financially,” Lichi said.