RAPID CITY - Branden West of Philip has a carpentry business, and his wife, Tayta West, runs a day-care center. But they don't make enough money to afford medical insurance.

When their son, Cooper, contracted a rare heart disease for the second time at age 8, the Wests racked up medical bills totaling $60,000. Cooper got the treatment he needed, but his parents will be paying off the bills for years, plus paying for the ongoing care he needs, according to Branden's grandparents, Mike and Marcia West, also of Philip.

Barbara Shenk had been the public-relations coordinator for a large company in Colorado, but after she moved to Rapid City, she had a heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery. Shenk said residual effects from the surgery left her with a poor memory and little stamina.

She got fired from her job - and lost her medical insurance. She doesn't blame her employer. "They did what they had to do," she said. Shenk lost four more full-time jobs since then because, she admits, "I was too slow and inept to keep up."

Shenk said she was forced into early retirement and spent much of her retirement savings to pay medical and other bills.

Shenk and the Wests told their stories to AARP officials in Rapid City on Wednesday as part of AARP's new push for health care and financial security.

Their stories were videotaped during an AARP Town Hall Conversation at Best Western Ramkota Hotel & Conference Center. About 30 people attended.

AARP hopes to collect and record such stories for its new nationwide advocacy effort, "Divided We Fail."

Sarah Jennings, AARP's South Dakota director, said the project is aimed at raising awareness of the need to change the health-care and financial-security systems in the United States.

"It is an effort to elevate these to the two most pressing domestic issues in the 2008 elections and into 2009 as we have a new president and a new Congress," Jennings said.

Jennings cited several statistics:

n 60 percent of Americans are worried about being able to afford health insurance over the next few years.

n 56 percent of those in the work force are afraid they will have to live without health insurance if they lose their jobs.

n 52 percent of retirees depend on Social Security to keep them above the poverty line.

n In South Dakota, as many as 90,000 South Dakotans have no insurance. "We believe that's unacceptable," Jennings told the group.

"Many families are one health-care crisis away from financial ruin. That's unacceptable in America," she said.

AARP is not advocating any specific pieces of legislation now. And the group does not endorse candidates for office.

However, it plans to lobby candidates for statewide and national office, according to Sam Wilson, an associate state director at the Rapid City meeting.

"People are talking at their kitchen tables about these problems, but they don't know who else to tell," Wilson said. "People see AARP as their mouthpiece."

Two more town hall meetings on the Divided We Fail effort are planned in South Dakota: on Wednesday, Oct. 10, in Sioux Falls, and Wednesday, Oct. 17 in Pierre.

All three members of South Dakota's congressional delegation have pledged to support the awareness effort, Jennings said.

She said AARP has been joined by "strange bedfellows" on the Divided We Fail advocacy effort, the Business Roundtable, one of the largest business groups in the country, and Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions.

Meanwhile, Shenk has found she has enough stamina to work part-time from home. Now 62, she took early retirement, which means her Social Security benefits are reduced.

She was the victim of identity theft two years ago, which resulted in big credit-card bills. She declared bankruptcy and - mistakenly, she says now - used her retirement accounts to pay off those bills and her medical bills.

She has no medical insurance, but she gets much of her treatment at Community Health Services, which charges according to ability to pay. She went to an eye specialist and makes payments on that bill.

She'll have to wait three more years to qualify for Medicare.

But, she said, "The people I owe money to have been very gracious. I'm grateful for that."

Cooper West is doing fine, his great-grandparents say. He's an active boy but has to wear a chest protector because he has two aneurisms on his heart. "He has to be careful he doesn't get hit in the chest," Marcia West said.

He'll require ongoing medical care, and he is uninsurable.

Cooper's parents, Branden and Tayta, are working and doing their best, Marcia West said. "But it's a constant worry about him and the financial part."

They make too much money to qualify for welfare but not enough to afford medical insurance, she said. "They're stuck in the middle."

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com