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Horton is an afterthought, an unknown face to lawmakers, but her story is one of thousands involving devastating
financial impacts to innocent victims caught in a partisan free-for-all.
Billions of dollars have gone unpaid to state operations because the budget is 71 days overdue. In Horton's case, funds
are locked out of an obscure state program that provides health coverage to disaster response volunteers.
Horton is trying to remain optimistic and not dwell on her problems - not on her partially amputated foot, not on her
pain, not on her tedious recovery, not on her lack of mobility.
But she's desperate.
"I'm not trying to pick bones with anyone," Horton said. "But we're hurting, and we need legislators to get to work - to
put their political differences aside and pass a budget. "
El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Neves cited Horton's case in a news conference last week with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"She's going broke because there is no mechanism at the state, without a budget, to reimburse her," Neves told the
governor, calling the case a tragedy.
"She's just a great lady," Neves said later.
Horton, a 53-year-old volunteer for the El Dorado County search-and-rescue team, was severely injured June 30 while
responding to a plea for help in finding two missing hikers, sheriff's reports said.
Preparing to hit the trail, Horton was leaning against a truck, rinsing insect repellant from her contact lens, when a
portable radio repeater antenna lifted by two colleagues struck a 20,000-volt power line and the electricity knocked her
unconscious.
"It stopped my heart and my body tensed - I fell backward like a tree," Horton said she was told by colleagues later.
Rescue workers jumped to her aid in a millisecond, she said, administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation for two minutes
before hearing a faint heartbeat.
"I'm very fortunate to be alive," she said.
Horton was hospitalized five weeks and underwent four operations, including amputation of her big toe and the ball of
her left foot. Her medical bills are soaring toward $500,000 - and the state hasn't paid a dime, she said.
California's Workers' Compensation system continues to pay claims for injured workers, despite the budget crisis, but
Horton does not qualify because she is a volunteer who was not injured while on a paid public or private job.
The private insurance she had through her job has denied coverage, she said, because the claim is a Workers' Compensation
case.
El Dorado County does not provide benefits, because disaster aid volunteers are covered under a state program operated by
the Office of Emergency Services that pays the medical bills of disaster volunteers.
But it needs an appropriation from the state, which won't occur until a budget is passed, said Kelly Huston, OES spokesman.
Huston, citing confidentiality laws, declined to discuss Horton's case or to confirm that she had filed a claim. Benefits
to 10 people are being held up by the tardy budget, he said.
Aaron McLear, spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said the two-month budget standoff is causing pain and hardship to many
statewide.
"There are real-life consequences to the Legislature's failure to compromise on a budget, which is why the governor is
urging legislators to put his compromise budget up for a vote."
Horton is not taking sides.
The state program ultimately is expected to pay her medical bills and a fraction of her lost wages as a physician's
assistant, a job she has been unable to perform since her injuries, she said.
With no income or state benefits, however, Horton - who lives in a Nevada condominium near South Lake Tahoe - said she
borrowed from fellow searchers to pay food, rent and personal bills the past three months.
That money is nearly gone, she said.
"I was trying to help people - and now I'm the one who's stuck," said Horton, who lives alone, the mother of four grown
children.
"I've had four surgeries," she said. "I've had helicopter bills. Ambulance bills. Emergency room bills ... When those
bills don't get paid, people look for someone to pay them - and I'm the one it's going to fall back on. I worry about
my credit rating."
Horton hopes her dilemma will prompt the state to change the way it provides health care insurance to disaster volunteers.
"I'm very, very frustrated," she said.
"But anger is a negative emotion, and I'm trying to be positive ... Every day is a new day."
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Jeanne Horton is stuck in the cracks of this year's state budget standoff: She nearly died serving an El Dorado County
Sheriff's Department that now can't even pay her medical bill.