Photo by "Mule" Symons
It was approaching midnight in late summer as I made my way home. I’ve always found the interstate to be a lonely place, but on this particular night it was especially forlorn. The blackness of the night hung over me like a blindfold, unable to distinguish the landscape of the passing miles. Was it mountain, valley or field? I didn’t know. The night left me abandoned. My dawn departure from home seemed like light-years away and I still had a long way to go. I felt lost. Within the horizon of the black night all I could see were the faces of the people I had met in the summer of 2011. I was haunted by their images. I never believed in ghosts. I did now. What did they want from me?
I was grounded back to reality by the sour convenience store
coffee I purchased at my previous stop off Pennsylvania I-80. As home became closer, the ghosts began to
emerge from the darkness and their picture became clearer. They were beckoning me to tell their
story. Each of them was a brush stroke
in a painting that blended together to create the perfect portrait of the
uninsured. I knew the data and the human
images of the data appeared before me so willingly this summer. The puzzle came together on a remote
interstate that night.
The Department of Health and Human Services overview of the
uninsured states that they primarily live in a family with at least one full
time worker, often work in small establishments (such as Brianna), are often
young adults between 19-24(like Bill and Tyler), self-employed (like Susan),
low wage workers (such as Braianna and Tyler), non-unionized and part-time
workers (like Shontell).[i] This data also highlights another unexpected
group, retirees. Workers that leave
their careers but are not quite old enough to qualify for medicare are another
cohort that has fallen into the trap of the uninsured.
As dusk began to settle on the day just before my lonely
drive down I-80, this statistic carried a human face. Within a few hours of each other I met Tom
and Karen. Tom is a 63 year old retired
guidance counselor from Mercer County.
When he retired at the age of 58 he was left to utilize COBRA at the
monthly cost of $1600 a month or $19,200 a year. While Tom was paying for this policy and
isn’t considered uninsured, for many low income individuals, this is an
impossibility. Similarly, Karen is a 64
year old retired notary from Butler County who explained that she was now
working part-time solely to pay for her health insurance until she reached the
infamous “milestone age” of 65, the age to qualify for medicare. After a lifetime of being a contributing
members of society, are these the “golden years” we promised our retirees?
It was approaching 1am and home was getting closer. As I thought about Tom and Karen, I knew that
retirees like them would benefit from the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act because of their eligibility for the individual exchanges. However, Tom, Karen
and the other ghosts were still sitting on the passenger seat beside me. We were traveling on an unfamiliar road. We were on our way to experience and see the
implementation of the PPACA. The
haunting of these ghosts will not end until we achieve access to health care
that is not stratified.
[i]
Department of Health and Human
Services, Research in Action, Issue #17, September 2004
Thank you for joining the "Summer at the County Fair" series. Please follow me next week into the fall of 2011 as I explore other aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and how it will impact groups and institution in Pennsylvania. On 11/4 meet Theresa BrownGold:
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