| The first family has two working parents in their late thirties and two children under the age of 10. In the fall, the father started a new job that would provide benefits to the whole family. During the required 90-day waiting period for the coverage to kick in, he suffered from a stomach flu so violent that he tore his esophagus. This wasn't realized, however, until he collapsed one day close to death from sepsis. After a very tense initial ten days and then the following four weeks of in-patient care, he is thankfully well enough to return to work but is suffocating under the medical bills that are in the high six figures. They are scrambling to avoid bankruptcy and losing their home, friends are putting together a fundraiser to help offset the costs.
The second family in our story has two parents in their mid forties with one child in college and another in high school. Several years ago, the mother was diagnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumor that was removed but left her partially paralyzed. As a result she is on disability and unable to return to work full time, creating additional financial hardship on the family. If she were to go off disability (against her doctor's recommendations) and return to full time employment, any future provider would treat her health issues as "pre-existing" and they likely wouldn't be covered under a new plan. As it is, even with the benefits, the percentage that isn't covered is a tremendous financial burden to the family. While the state program can cover the children until they finish school, her self-employed husband must pay for his own coverage at a considerable cost.
The third family was featured in a Daily Record article last month. A young couple who had the world in front of them and tried to start a family only to learn the wife had a brain tumor that required immediate attention and a lot of ongoing care. Their medical bills are so steep a fundraiser was held on their behalf to help with the costs.
This story isn't a fable, it is about real people living today in the world's wealthiest nation and they are drowning in medical bills. These people aren't fictional, two of these families are personal friends of ours and the other family we know through church.
I wonder if Jim Larkin has ever had to choose between paying the mortgage and getting necessary medication. People who have never been faced with not having insurance coverage don't understand how expensive it is - on average a family of four can cost up to $1500 per month. How many families can find an extra $1500 per month? And that's just to pay for the coverage, not to mention any co-pays, deductibles or percentages not covered by the insurance. On a personal note, there was a time when my husband had lost his job and we paid out tens of thousands of dollars to make sure we had health insurance. He eventually obtained a full time job with benefits, but we lost our financial security.
And it's not limited to families. A single, uninsured friend of ours recently related his experience of being in the emergency room after tripping off of his porch and being in a fair amount of pain. The doctor wanted to take x-rays to determine what, if anything, was broken. What followed was a negotiation of which x-rays cost how much and what he could afford.
Doctors aren't winning in this scenario either. Some doctors have given up considerable sums of billed services rather than wrestle with insurance companies or stick patients with the burden. The reason they chose their profession was a desire to help others and sadly that is getting lost in the red tape that is our health care system today.
Businesses large and small across the country are feeling the squeeze from health insurance costs and are finding it increasingly difficult to be competitive while offering benefits.
Mr. Larkin can joke all he wants about his misperceptions of universal healthcare, but in today's system many of us are just one slip and fall or one illness away from bankruptcy, and it's no laughing matter.
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