An anxious heat entered my eight-year-old mind and I curled up in bed, hoping Mother would pay me one of her night visits, kiss my forehead, lie beside me.

NEWYORKER: Naima

"I can skip a dinner or two to pay off a credit card, but I'm going to have this bed for 20 years, " she said.

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The government is supposed to pay for a motor-driven chair only if the patient would be confined to bed without one.

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Although there has been talk of using private hospitals to deal with bed shortages in the National Health Service, the government seems unwilling to pay for this help.

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