Life is moving pretty fast for the Hegemommy household these days and as spring approaches our ground is suddenly shifting. New things in the works. That’s the good part. The not so good part is that finalzing these new things will throw our current health insurance system back into flux. Some of you may recall that we only recently had it stabilize. That’s the not so good part.
My family is actually one of the lucky ones. We’ll be able to jump from employer-based health plan to health plan. So while it’s safe to say that by the middle of summer we’ll be back on Kelly’s HSA and back to paying about $6000 out of pocket and $4500 in premium payments before insurance benefits kick in. But hey, at least coverage is an option for us. For now.
Our health coverage comes from Kelly’s employer-a small business intent on doing the right thing by its employees, but it’s getting to the point where the premium increases, matched only by the narrowing of coverage, is not affordable for either Kelly’s employer or us. We’ll carry it till we can’t afford to carry it any more. But even with steady jobs and frugal living, I’ll tell you, that’s a threshold that feels a little too close for comfort.
So I should take some reassurance that my Congressional representatives are hard at work fixing this mess, right? Not quite. Take Rep. John Kline, for example. His suggestions for reform include embracing the HSA (you all know our feelings on HSA’s by now), and allowing small businesses to band together and purchase insurance, free from individual state regulatory schemes the same as large corporations. Sounds okay in theory, except that it totally ignores the simple fact that small businesses have fewer people to spread the risk, even if they band together. Their insurance will remain inherently more expensive, particularly if they have an employee with a medical condition. These pools do little to address cost control or expanding coverage. But boy does it sound good.
The other practical effect of skipping over state regulatory schemes is that employers could try to avoid covering some conditions, either immediately or in the future through a pre-existing condition. That’s troublesome to a family with kidney diesease, c-section delivery, and high blood pressure. Under Kline’s plan, my famlily could find themselves actually dumped from coverage or practically precluded from purchasing anything of any use because of cost prohibitions.
Health care reform is no joke to my family, and it is certainy nothing that can wait to wade through intellectually dishonest policy proposals. I’d just like the opportunity to have the same kind of health care coverage as my Representative but for whatever reason, John Kline would rather I not.
February 28th, 2010 | 
