Copyright 2003 The New
York Times Company
The New York Times
HEADLINE: For Middle Class, Health Insurance Becomes a Luxury
BYLINE: By STEPHANIE STROM
DATELINE:
BODY:
The last time Kevin Thornton had health insurance was three years ago, which
was not much of a problem until he began having trouble swallowing.
"I broke down earlier this year and went in and talked to a doctor about
it," said Mr. Thornton, who lives in
A barium X-ray cost him $130, and the radiologist another $70, expenses he
charged to his credit cards. The doctor ordered other tests that Mr. Thornton
simply could not afford.
"I was supposed to go back after the X-ray results came, but I decided
just to live with it for a while," he said. "I may just be a walking
time bomb."
Mr. Thornton, 41, left a stable job with good health coverage in 1998 for a
higher salary at a dot-com company that went bust a few months later. Since
then, he has worked on contract for various companies, including one that
provided insurance until the project ended in 2000. "I failed to keep up
the payments that would have been required to maintain my coverage," he
said. "It was just too much money."
Mr. Thornton is one of more than 43 million people in the
The majority of the uninsured are neither poor by official standards nor
unemployed. They are accountants like Mr. Thornton, employees of small
businesses, civil servants, single working mothers and those working part time
or on contract.
"Now it's hitting people who look like you and me, dress like you and me,
drive nice cars and live in nice houses but can't afford $1,000 a month for
health insurance for their families," said R. King Hillier, director of
legislative relations for Harris County, which includes Houston.
Paying for health insurance is becoming a middle-class problem, and not just
here. "After paying for health insurance, you take home less than minimum
wage," says a poster in
The insurance crisis is especially visible in
State cuts to subsidies for health insurance to help close a $10 billion budget
gap will cost the state $500 million in federal matching money and are expected
to further spur the rise in uninsured. In September, for example, more than
half a million children enrolled in a state- and federal-subsidized insurance program lost dental, vision and most mental care coverage,
and some 169,000 children will lose all insurance by 2005.
"These were tough economic times that the legislature was dealing with,
and the governor believed in setting the tone for the legislative session that
the government must operate the way
She noted that the legislature raised spending on health and human services by
$1 billion this year, and that lawmakers passed two bills intended to make it
easier for small businesses to provide health insurance for their employees.
Those measures, however, will not help Theresa Pardo
or other
Ms. Pardo, a 29-year-old from
When Morgan's dentist recently wanted to pull a tooth, Ms. Pardo
hesitated. The tooth extraction proceeded, but: "I had to ask him, if you
pull this tooth, will it cause other problems? Because if it
does, I can't afford to deal with them."
Lorenda Stevenson said her choice was between buying
medicine to treat patches of peeling, flaking skin on her hands, arms and face
and making sure her son could continue his after-school tennis program.
"There's no way I will cut that out unless we don't have money for
food," she said.
Mrs. Stevenson's husband, Bill, lost his management job at WorldCom two years
ago, when an accounting scandal forced the company into bankruptcy. They
managed to pay $900 a month for Cobra, the government policy that allows
workers to continue their coverage after they lose their jobs, but when the
cost rose to $1,200, they could no longer afford it.
When their son, a ninth grader, needed a physical and shot to take tennis, Mrs.
Stevenson turned to the Rockwall Area Health Clinic, a nonprofit clinic in
Rockwall, a city of 13,000 northeast of Dallas. The clinic charged her $20
instead of the $400 she estimated she would have paid at the doctor's office.
"I sat filling out the paperwork and crying," she said, tears
streaming down her face. "I was so embarrassed to bring him here."
A salve to treat her skin condition costs $27, and she pays roughly $50 a month
for medications for high blood pressure and hormones. She does without
medication she needs for acid reflux, treating the conditions sporadically with
samples from the clinic.
Carol Johnston cannot afford even doctor visits. A single mother living in
Cobra would have cost $214 a month, or more than one-fifth of the $1,028 in
unemployment she gets a month. As it is, her monthly bills for rent, car,
utilities and phone exceed her income.
She got a 12-month deferral on her student loans, and Ford pushed her car
payments back by two months. The
Now Ms. Johnston's 16-year-old son is losing the portion of his insurance that
covered treatment for his learning and emotional disabilities because of state
cutbacks.
Ms. Johnston herself does not qualify for Medicaid, the government insurance
program for the indigent, because her income is too high, the same reason she
qualifies for only $10 a month in food stamps.
"I worry, I worry so much about making sure my son is safe," she
said.
As for her own health, Ms. Johnston has two cysts in one breast and three in
another but has had only one aspirated because she cannot afford to check on
the others. "Do I have to move to
Experts warn that allowing health problems to fester is only going to increase
the costs of providing health care for the uninsured. "As Americans, when
are we going to realize it's cheaper to save them on the front end than when
they get cancer and show up in the emergency room?" said Sandra B.
Thurman, executive director of PediPlace, a nonprofit
health clinic in Lewisville, Tex.
Many hospitals and neighborhood clinics here say that the well-heeled are now
joining the poor in seeking their care. Emergency rooms are particularly hard
hit, since federal law requires them to treat anyone who walks through their
doors for emergency treatment, regardless of whether they can pay.
Public hospital emergency rooms are even harder hit, since private hospitals
will move quickly to shift uninsured patients to them. And clinics for the poor
are also seeing an increase in demand.
A clinic run by Central Dallas Ministries charges patients $5 for a doctor
visit, $10 for medication and $15 if laboratory work is needed, but often
settles for no payment from many of the 3,500 patients it treats each year.
"I'm not real optimistic it will get a lot better," said Larry Morris
James, executive director of Central Dallas Ministries. "Demographic and
economic trends tell you that it's probably going to get worse."
For Irma Arellano, the problem has already hit home. Mrs. Arellano is a
secretary in the Royse school district northeast of
Two years ago, the Arellanos paid $269 a month to
insure the family. The price jumped last year to $339 and this year to $780,
more than their monthly mortgage payment.
Her husband works for a small landscaping company that does not offer
insurance. So Mrs. Arellano is insured, but her husband, Jose, and their three
children -- Jackie, 16; Joe, 15; and Anthony, 13 -- are going without
insurance.
The Arellanos' income, which ranges from $2,800 to
$3,200 a month, makes them ineligible for state-subsidized insurance. Their
basic expenses run $2,000 a month or more.
"I'm one of those people in the middle," Mrs. Arellano said. "We
don't make enough to pay for insurance ourselves, but we make too much to
qualify for CHIP," the government-subsidized program for children.
So her children were recently at the Rockwall clinic for the physicals they
need to participate in after-school sports, paying $25 instead of the $100 or
more Mrs. Arellano would have paid at the doctor's office.
The family has catastrophic insurance, but Mrs. Arellano is uncertain how much
longer she can afford it. Mr. Arellano's income typically drops in the winter,
and his wife is hoping the children will then qualify for the state insurance
program.
Even so, newly initiated regulations require families to reapply for the
insurance every six months, rather than once a year, so they are not likely to
qualify for long.
"I'll take what I can get," Mrs. Arellano said.
http://www.nytimes.com
Two years ago, the Arellanos, paid $269 a month for
health insurance. The price jumped to $339 last year and this year to $780, more than the mortgage payment.
The Uninsured"
The percentage of people in the
TOTAL: 15.2%
MALE: 16.7
FEMALE: 13.9
WHITE: 14.2
BLACK: 20.2
ASIAN: 18.4
HISPANIC*: 32.4
17 OR YOUNGER: 11.6
18-24: 29.6
25-34: 24.9
35-44: 17.7
45-64: 13.5
65 OR OLDER: 0.8
NATIVE: 12.8
FOREIGN BORN: 33.4
NORTHEAST: 13.0
SOUTH: 17.5
WEST: 17.1
*Can be of any race.
(Source by Census Bureau)
November 16, 2003