Living in The Gap
Our Idaho Legislators are packing up and heading home for the interim. While I am sure many of them feel they accomplished something this legislative session and represented their constituents adequately, all of them bear responsibility for leaving something vital undone - Medicaid redesign. For myself, and many Idahoans, adoption of the Healthy Idaho Plan would make a profound impact in our lives. I work hard but don't make enough to qualify for affordable health insurance. I'd like to share my story with you, in the hopes that it will dispel some of the myths about Idaho's working poor and the Medicaid gap.
Ten years ago, I married the man of my dreams. I was full of hope. However, a few months into the marriage we came across a major stumbling block. My husband suffered from an undiagnosed condition that caused him extreme abdominal pain - pain so severe that he can't stand and often vomits, sometimes for days on end. He lost his job after one day of illness. We started again. He found another job but soon lost it too. We began looking for a solution to his medical condition. We started with a family doctor, who ordered a few tests, which required up-front cash deposits. Those tests gave us no answers, just bills. That doctor referred us to a specialist who ordered more tests with more deposits. Over the last 10 years we have seen countless doctors and specialists but have gotten no answers. The charges for these tests and specialists totaled more than $50,000 and yet, every day I still see him grab his stomach and double over in agony.
As time passed and we discovered that there was no help for him, we adjusted our plan. He would work with me in my in-home child care facility and I would attend college with the hope of eventually being able to find work that included insurance. It has been a long journey. When the ACA passed we both felt that finally things would change for our family. But Idaho lawmakers are blocking access to these benefits for working Idahoans like us.
Child care, while we love it, does not pay very well. After expenses, our income, despite working more than 60 hours per week, is meager-well below the federal poverty limit. I cannot ever hope to pay all the medical bills that have accumulated over the years. I am bankrupt.
After searching high and low for years, I recently found a medical facility that will, for a small monthly fee, help my husband manage his pain. And, I am grateful for that. However, this does not solve our problems entirely. This doctor would like to begin testing my husband again-in other words more tests and more money we don't have. Furthermore, a single trip to an ER would force us right back into financial trouble.
I am not alone in this problem. Every one of my day care clients falls into the coverage gap. These single mothers with children, work. Their jobs, like mine, pay just enough to keep a roof over their heads. One medical emergency would be financially disastrous.
This is the rollercoaster that Idaho's working poor experience. We keep trying only to be knocked down over and over again. The reality is that to get Medicaid in Idaho you must be destitute - earning less than $300 per month - and the fact is a family earning $301 cannot afford to pay for medical care. My local Health and Welfare has encouraged me on more than one occasion to give up my 20-year child care career in order to qualify my loved one for Medicaid. The reality is that Idaho is forcing its poor to choose between a life of work and contribution or total dependence on the system.
This system is broken. However, it can be fixed. Adopting the Healthy Idaho Plan would help more than 78,000 Idahoans living on this edge of constant financial ruin. We aren't asking for a handout but rather a hand up. It isn't an entitlement but rather a chance at success and health. It is time for Idaho to opt in.
Michelle Gluch is an author and photographer with more than 50 Idaho based stories, articles and photographs published in print and on the Internet, including work published by the Huffington Post, Sugar Mule and Mixed Fruit. She holds a B.A. in English with a writing emphasis, from Boise State University and is currently pursuing an M.A. in composition and rhetoric. Michelle is one of the thousands of Idahoans that falls within the coverage gap.