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Forgotten by the System
A system of employer-based health insurance leaves women more vulnerable to being uninsured than men. Despite growing equality between the sexes, many women, by choice or otherwise, step aside and allow their husbands to assume the role of main breadwinner. This is especially true if the couple has children. As a result, a significant number of women are covered by their husbands’ insurance. This is not problematic if the marriage lasts — but if it ends, the woman’s health coverage will also end.
This is what happened to Kathy, an Aurora woman who was left without insurance after her divorce. Kathy is one of the many working uninsured individuals in the state of Illinois. Kathy’s job does not provide her with insurance, and she cannot afford to buy it on the individual market. Luckily, her children are still covered by her husband’s plan. However, Kathy remains the primary caregiver for her children, and when she gets sick it has a direct impact on them. “What about the single moms?” Kathy asks. “When they get sick, who takes care of the kids?” As Kathy points out, sometimes the father is simply not an option.
Kathy takes excellent care of herself because she cannot afford to get sick. She doesn’t drink or smoke, and she exercises regularly. But even the most conscientious of individuals will fall ill from time to time. When Kathy started feeling sick after Christmas, she initially dismissed her symptoms, telling herself she would quickly recover. Unable to afford the visit to the doctor, she treated herself with vitamins and over the counter drugs. For a while it seemed as if she were getting better. But then, she woke up one morning delirious with fever. She was admitted to the hospital later that day with double pneumonia and a temperature of 104 degrees.
Kathy is out of the hospital now, but she is not allowed to return to work since her job requires her to be outside. This illness was a huge financial setback. Before this happened, Kathy was making just enough to get by — now she doesn’t even know how she will pay her mortgage next week. Fortunately for Kathy, she has a good friend who is a nurse. It was this friend, and not a staff member at the hospital where she was treated, that told her about charity care. She is still waiting to see if she qualifies for help paying her hospital bills.
Kathy is understandably afraid of losing her home one day because of overwhelming medical debt. And she knows she is not alone in this. She wants her elected officials to sit up and take notice of the many who share her plight. Kathy knows that her lawmakers have great health benefits and finds it “pathetic” that they can’t find a way to make health care affordable and accessible to their constituents. According to Kathy, “This sends a very clear message that they simply don't care about the people who elected them to office, who they are supposed to represent. Every person is entitled to proper health care.”
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