Well, I am writing to you from a hotel room in Riverton, WY which is NOT Cody, WY where we were supposed to be bedding down for the night. A winter storm diverted us several hours off course, and we needed to be settled by 6:30 PM tonight so we pulled into this little town and are in avery old fashioned, but clean (and hopeuflly spider free) little motel. Luckily, are kids are about as flexible as they come, and we just finished a gab fest in the Girl Room where we giggled a lot after eating microwaved TV dinners, listened to Matthew sharing random facts that we looked up about snoring, and had Kenny wiggling his booty pretending to be MC Hammer...the lite and uncool version. At first we had been dismayed that the entire trip would be spent in separate rooms with the family divided, but we have been fortunate to have almost all adjoining rooms with connecting doors, and after seeing how AWFUL AND DISGUSTING the boys are keeping their room (Yes, Dominick...I mean YOU!!!) we girls are quite pleased with the arrangement. No dirty tidy whiteys thrown on the floor, no wet towels crumpled up and put wherever, no suitecases sitting in the middle of the floor for 3 days. We girls are ORGANIZED, we are NEAT, we don't smell like WET SOCKS!!! Hurray!!
Yesterday evening's entertainment, which consisted of ripping apart two beds down to lifting up the box springs to see if we could find a Mom Eating Spider, was unproductive, but unfortunately I woke up with 3 smaller bites (I hope they stay that way) on my cheek and one more on my arm. Luckily, the others are shoing signs of improvement, though one has left me with a half inch blister. I have never seen anything like this. Complaints to the front desk of the hotel fell on deaf ears, and so I will be utilizing Trip Advisor to warn others of booking that room.
You know, we fall in the "underinsured" category. We have been diligent about always having health insurance, but as our family size increased right along with our ages, our premium has ballooned to a point where we had to take a high deductible plan to just protect ourselves against the Big Loss that might hit someday, but it does little for our day to day expenses. I will reveal some financial information here because I think people need to understand why families like ours are truly struggling in ways others don't fully appreciate. There are so many comments in the media about people being "irresponsible" and not having insurance, or not going to the doctor early enough, but maybe I can explain why.
For example, we pay just a little over $700 per month for health insurance with a $10,000 annual family deductible. We have no copays, we have to pay $10,000 before any coverage kicks in at all. It is a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan...a real insurance plan, not a cheesy one with a no-name company, but it is all the coverage we can afford and we really have no idea how we will handle further rate increases. We have to pay for all medication out of pocket as well until that deductible is met. We have current medications for Kenny, and the girls' acne, along with Synthroid for me, which equals approximately $245 a month...on top of our $700 a month premium, on top of paying all other medical costs that might arise like doctor visits, tests, blood tests, xrays. Throw in Kenny's $140 a month for braces for the next 3 years, and basically, every month we are at well over $1000 a month in medical costs by the time we make payments on office visits, my blood tests, etc. that come throughout the year. When the average lower middle class family is paying this much for ordinary health care, the question has to be asked...how long do they remain middle class before medical costs alone cause them to slip down a rung or two on the socio-economic ladder?
It is families like ours that delay medical care, because we can't afford it...even though we have insurance. It is families like ours who are trying our hardest to be responsible and good stewards of our finances who often put off going to the MD for minor issues which turn into more serious things because we can't have yet another bill on our plate. If there is anything at all we can do to avoid it, we do. If we think giving something time to heal on its own might work, we wait. If we think maybe we can muscle through some pain, we do it...all because we can't rack up even more medical costs.
I have been embarrassed at times when visiting the MD and he says, "Why didn't you come in sooner?" because I...like millions of other Americans...have to say "Because we couldn't afford it." I had an emotionally paralyzing moment right before our trip when we took Olesya to a new dermatologist ($268) and she prescribed new medication to try. There at the Target counter with all 5 kids in tow and others behind me, the pharmacist says, "These are a little expensive." and because I am thinking they will still be comparable to medication to what we are already paying I am not too concerned...until she rings up our purchase and wants $670...for a one month supply. I just about died, because that literally is the difference between my daughter's face permanently scarring as her acne is quite bad right now, or food on the table. I had to sheepishly ask the pharmacist to put it back because there was no way I could pay that much. The kids all got a look that was just as stunned as mine was, and Olesya said, "Don't worry mom, we don't have to get it..." We lucked out and eventually got the MD to prescribe something else less expensive, though not quite as effective, but still almost $300 for one month.
There are millions of families like ours in America, who are technically "insured", and yet can't afford health care because of high deductibles that really cover only catastrophic events. We are not unique, we are the ones on the edge with so many others hoping never to meet that deductible because of what it means in terms of your family's health if you did...but really wishing you could get some value out of the plan you pay $8400 a year for. We and countless others make health care decisions based not on need, but on cost. Our monthly health care costs for what are really relatively minor things, now exceeds our mortgage. We aren't alone, but we don't get talked about much in the national debate about health care. We hear mainly about uninsured folks, but really, for many of us, while we are perhaps not in as dire straights as some, our health care decisions are made in the same way for the same reasons. The only difference? We won't lose our house for the Big Bill that one day might come. If we had a $500 deductible, as in days of old, we would not put off care,and would quickly make an appointment to get in to see someone. Those days are long gone, hence our reticence to seek out medical care as early as we once did.
People may scream over "Obamacare", they may yell over the idea of "socialized medical care" that so many other developed nations have turned to, but something has to be done. We have two children completely uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions in Kenny and Matthew. We can't even consider changing plans, and even if we could, there is nothing more affordable out there to choose from.
And I know we are not the only ones. I hope that someday there are dramatic changes in the way we, as a nation, view health care. I hope we begin to talk about the real hard costs of health care, and not just how to offer lower cost insurance which will always be out of reach of so many. We need to have a non-reactive, non-partisan, true revolution in our health care delivery system. As time goes on, the challenges we face as a lower middle class family will continue to creep up the ladder to hit the upper middle class. I won't pretend to have the answers, but I know other countries have managed to provide a solid level of health care to all their citizens so that no one has to sit one night with an injury and say, "Should I go to the ER, or do I want to eat or pay the mortgage next month?"
But then again, the best laid plans are always interrupted by something, aren't they?
Yesterday evening's entertainment, which consisted of ripping apart two beds down to lifting up the box springs to see if we could find a Mom Eating Spider, was unproductive, but unfortunately I woke up with 3 smaller bites (I hope they stay that way) on my cheek and one more on my arm. Luckily, the others are shoing signs of improvement, though one has left me with a half inch blister. I have never seen anything like this. Complaints to the front desk of the hotel fell on deaf ears, and so I will be utilizing Trip Advisor to warn others of booking that room.
You know, we fall in the "underinsured" category. We have been diligent about always having health insurance, but as our family size increased right along with our ages, our premium has ballooned to a point where we had to take a high deductible plan to just protect ourselves against the Big Loss that might hit someday, but it does little for our day to day expenses. I will reveal some financial information here because I think people need to understand why families like ours are truly struggling in ways others don't fully appreciate. There are so many comments in the media about people being "irresponsible" and not having insurance, or not going to the doctor early enough, but maybe I can explain why.
For example, we pay just a little over $700 per month for health insurance with a $10,000 annual family deductible. We have no copays, we have to pay $10,000 before any coverage kicks in at all. It is a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan...a real insurance plan, not a cheesy one with a no-name company, but it is all the coverage we can afford and we really have no idea how we will handle further rate increases. We have to pay for all medication out of pocket as well until that deductible is met. We have current medications for Kenny, and the girls' acne, along with Synthroid for me, which equals approximately $245 a month...on top of our $700 a month premium, on top of paying all other medical costs that might arise like doctor visits, tests, blood tests, xrays. Throw in Kenny's $140 a month for braces for the next 3 years, and basically, every month we are at well over $1000 a month in medical costs by the time we make payments on office visits, my blood tests, etc. that come throughout the year. When the average lower middle class family is paying this much for ordinary health care, the question has to be asked...how long do they remain middle class before medical costs alone cause them to slip down a rung or two on the socio-economic ladder?
It is families like ours that delay medical care, because we can't afford it...even though we have insurance. It is families like ours who are trying our hardest to be responsible and good stewards of our finances who often put off going to the MD for minor issues which turn into more serious things because we can't have yet another bill on our plate. If there is anything at all we can do to avoid it, we do. If we think giving something time to heal on its own might work, we wait. If we think maybe we can muscle through some pain, we do it...all because we can't rack up even more medical costs.
I have been embarrassed at times when visiting the MD and he says, "Why didn't you come in sooner?" because I...like millions of other Americans...have to say "Because we couldn't afford it." I had an emotionally paralyzing moment right before our trip when we took Olesya to a new dermatologist ($268) and she prescribed new medication to try. There at the Target counter with all 5 kids in tow and others behind me, the pharmacist says, "These are a little expensive." and because I am thinking they will still be comparable to medication to what we are already paying I am not too concerned...until she rings up our purchase and wants $670...for a one month supply. I just about died, because that literally is the difference between my daughter's face permanently scarring as her acne is quite bad right now, or food on the table. I had to sheepishly ask the pharmacist to put it back because there was no way I could pay that much. The kids all got a look that was just as stunned as mine was, and Olesya said, "Don't worry mom, we don't have to get it..." We lucked out and eventually got the MD to prescribe something else less expensive, though not quite as effective, but still almost $300 for one month.
There are millions of families like ours in America, who are technically "insured", and yet can't afford health care because of high deductibles that really cover only catastrophic events. We are not unique, we are the ones on the edge with so many others hoping never to meet that deductible because of what it means in terms of your family's health if you did...but really wishing you could get some value out of the plan you pay $8400 a year for. We and countless others make health care decisions based not on need, but on cost. Our monthly health care costs for what are really relatively minor things, now exceeds our mortgage. We aren't alone, but we don't get talked about much in the national debate about health care. We hear mainly about uninsured folks, but really, for many of us, while we are perhaps not in as dire straights as some, our health care decisions are made in the same way for the same reasons. The only difference? We won't lose our house for the Big Bill that one day might come. If we had a $500 deductible, as in days of old, we would not put off care,and would quickly make an appointment to get in to see someone. Those days are long gone, hence our reticence to seek out medical care as early as we once did.
People may scream over "Obamacare", they may yell over the idea of "socialized medical care" that so many other developed nations have turned to, but something has to be done. We have two children completely uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions in Kenny and Matthew. We can't even consider changing plans, and even if we could, there is nothing more affordable out there to choose from.
And I know we are not the only ones. I hope that someday there are dramatic changes in the way we, as a nation, view health care. I hope we begin to talk about the real hard costs of health care, and not just how to offer lower cost insurance which will always be out of reach of so many. We need to have a non-reactive, non-partisan, true revolution in our health care delivery system. As time goes on, the challenges we face as a lower middle class family will continue to creep up the ladder to hit the upper middle class. I won't pretend to have the answers, but I know other countries have managed to provide a solid level of health care to all their citizens so that no one has to sit one night with an injury and say, "Should I go to the ER, or do I want to eat or pay the mortgage next month?"
But then again, the best laid plans are always interrupted by something, aren't they?
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