Do We Work to Live? Or Do We Work for Health Insurance?

I'm not sure how my insurance company quantifies the "depreciation" of a 33-year-old woman's body, but apparently it's considerable. For the privilege of turning one year older, I now pay an additional $40 per month for the same lackluster coverage I had last year.

I look at the increasingly visible lines under my eyes and think this is adding insult to injury.

"Don't take it personally," I've been told. "All insurance is going up." And this is true. Even if I was from Ork and turned younger with every passing year, my insurance rate would go up, because everybody's are.

Corporations, once the bastion of good health coverage, are pulling the plug on what we once took for granted--health care coverage. We hear of companies like Ford, which traditionally covered full health benefits but now has to reduce coverage because of skyrocketing insurance rates. And small businesses, which didn't exactly offer the best health care packages to begin with, are cutting them out completely.

Jeff Cornwall, who writes the blog for the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship, cites the latest findings on corporate coverage in California, an indicator of the nation in general, as reported in Inc. Magazine.

According to Inc.:

Citing rising costs, a majority of small businesses in California now no longer provide health-care coverage for employees, a new statewide survey shows...

...The California survey, which was released March 2 by the San Francisco-based Union Bank of California, found that 52% of the 2,000 small businesses polled said they no longer offer employee health-care plans -- the first time in the annual survey's six-year history that a majority do not.

Of the 48% of firms that still do provide coverage, about a quarter said rising costs have forced them to shift a larger burden to workers, while reducing overall benefits.

The farther away we move from the corporate model, the harder it is to afford health care. My mother, Joy, who lost her job last year, laments how insurance woes affect unemployed people nearing retirement age:

It's shameful that a person losing their job has to pay through the nose for insurance security; and if they're unfortunate enough to be too young for Medicare/Medicaid and don't have a jobthey are thrown into Healthcare Hell. I never thought I'd actually WANT to be older.fast.

These people face two whammies--age discrimination at work and by insurance companies. Not only is it harder for people in their 50s to find work, it's more expensive not to get work. I was shocked to read in the comments how people have forgone insurance, praying that they wouldn't get hit by a car, or stricken with some illness requiring health care, before they turned 65.

I have a friend nearing 50 who explained to me how he, a seasoned senior executive, has not been able to find a new job. With three kids in or about to go into college, he hesitates to go into consulting and lose a) a steady paycheck, even if he's miserable at work; and b) subsidized insurance.

I think about my friend and start to wonder whether rising insurance rates negates the need to stay at his company. Consider the overall equation:

Miserable corporate job + rising employee co-pays

against:

Being your own boss + ridiculously high insurance rates.

The first equation may seem more advantageous initially, but the more corporate employees will have to pay for insurance the more attractive the second equation will become.

Don't think that I don't know the ramifications of fully paying your own insurance. For families, co-pays rival the mortgage. My co-pays are more than three times what they were when I was a corporate employee for basic checkups, and I foot the bill for all kinds of formerly covered "maintenance" procedures such as pap smears. All of these extras that I have to cover, and all for the privilege of paying 20% more year after year. But at least I'm off the corporate Methadone of subsidized health insurance, a perk that's not so perky these days.

Inc. mentions legislation that, if it passes, will make it easier for small businesses to band together and gain more competitive insurance rates collectively. How about self-employeds? How about older people who've lost their jobs?

If you want to read more on insurance for aging workers, you must read Ronni Bennet's blog posts on health care.

Submitted by Jory Des Jardins (view blog

) on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 13:35

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At the moment we're pretty lucky with
healthcare in Australia

Jory, after reading yours, your mums, Ronni's and other posts about healthcare in the States it makes me glad that I live in Australia.

The only private health care I have is what's called extras which covers dental, eyes, some natural therapies, physio, chiro and a few other things. Hospital cover costs a lot more and as a sole parent I would have to pay the same amount for myself and my son as a family of more would and I have elected not to do this at this stage.

But our public hospital system is not too bad at the moment provided you don't need elective surgery. When I had my son I didn't pay one cent through the public system. I got yoga classes, hydrotherapy, ante-natal checkups and his birth all through the public system which I pay for with a relatively minimal amount through my tax each year.

I think we are headed towards an unaffordable system like the States which is a real shame.

Submitted by jaycee on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 15:34

I'm in the same leaky boat.

I'm in the same leaky boat. Insurance is my second only to my mortgage. I was buying insurance through my contract agencies - I freelance - but every time a project ended, I'd land in the fresh, expensive hell of Cobra. I finally opted for an individual plan and I'm still paying through the nose. I ponder, often, whether I should go to a catastrophic plan and just pay cash for the standard maintainance, I think it would cost me less than my annual insurance payments.

Sadly, I don't see this situation changing for the better any time soon. The US appears to be rabidly against national healthcare of any kind. I started doing my dental care in Austria at my second home, and this year, I bought my glasses here - my insurance does not cover teeth and eyes even at the prohibitive expense.

I'm lucky to have the option. Most people don't and I fail to see how they are not - well, to put it plainly - screwed. And I know any number of folks who won't quit their hellish jobs because of the health insurance.

It's a travesty.

Nerd's Eye View

Submitted by Pam on Tue, 03/07/2006 - 22:21

Great, I have to move to EUROPE to get health
insurance

Or maybe just for my eye exams;)

Jory Des Jardins
BlogHer
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Submitted by Jory Des Jardins on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 08:15

Husband Wanted

Must be a corporate wage slave with excellent health benefits or a member of Congress.

Hint: Check HR 2133 ;-)

Actually my vote would be for Barbara Lee's plan. I am so proud that she's my Rep. Too bad she votes her conscience.

Submitted by Maria Niles on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 00:12

That's a coinky-dink

I wrote about this post ysterday and closed with this paragraph:

Hell, I want my S.O. to marry me just so I can get on his health plan. (Oh yeah, and cause I love and respct him etc. etc. etc. ) God, I hope you all have a sense of humor out there (including him.)

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Submitted by Elisa Camahort on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 07:42

Think the government wants us to get married?

I'd say yep! I didn't see that comment, E, but I can relate. Maria, you crack me up! Can't you get a "Domestic Partner" benefit in California? Hmmmm.

Jory Des Jardins
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Submitted by Jory Des Jardins on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 08:12

Domestic partners...

Interesting you should ask that Jory. Only a couple of cities in California require companies to treat deomstic aprtners like spouses when it comes to benefits. We don't live in one of them. Now many companies do offer domestic partnership benefits. When the S.O. worked at Palm Iwas on his benefits. All we had to do was sign an affadavit.

But when he changed jobs and went to work for another very large tech company, we discovered that they only covered SAME-sex domestic partners, not us.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Submitted by Elisa Camahort on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 09:55

i just wrote about this in my blog last
week...

the doctor has determined that janie has the flu. THE FLU. now, let me ask you... would a two year old child who has THE FLU grab her mom's anorak from the trunk of the car and put it on and play???

i didn't think so either... lets take a look at all the medicine janie is on as of now...

xopenex: 3x a day for her cough.

poly tussin dm: a cough suppressant for nights when she can't sleep because of coughing

tamiflu: 2x a day for her flu symptoms

zyrtec: for her allergies.

singulair: for her allergies.

five. five different prescriptions. plus the two that i take orthotri-cyclen and nexium, that comes to just over $200. AND I HAVE INSURANCE PRESCRIPTION COVERAGE. i cannot imagine what it would be without that.

i don't mean to sound like i am complaining. but what is going on here? i mean, how is the average person suppose to be able to afford prescription drugs? granted, spending $200 on Rx is not something we have to do all the time. usually just in the winter when janie gets really ill. summer's not like this, neither is the fall. but what about those people who literally cannot afford medicines? - and are not in the system on medicaid?

THIS IS WHY I WORK. here's janie this morning. before i took her to daycare. SHE is why i work. SHE is why i try so hard to do a good job. SHE is the reason i wake up every morning.

Submitted by leigh49137 on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 12:17

I can see why!

Oh that face! Too cute.

Jory Des Jardins
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Submitted by Jory Des Jardins on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 16:37

Speaking for myself

I'm proud to be doing my part to make the healthcare and insurance industries perform so well for investors.

Laura
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Submitted by Laura Scott on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 12:57

and even when there's "domestic partnership"
laws...

Hi Jory,

you know, even in states where domestic partners can get health insurance, there's still the catch 22 of staying in the same miserable job vs. changing jobs. And what about when your business goes out of business--as what happened to the majority of my friends out here recently...there are no affordable options there either (sadly)

We also have a tolerable public health plan out here--that many of the folks employed by two companies in the region also use because they don't make enough to pay into the company health plan. It's caused enough of a crisis for the state gov to consider mandating the companies to make their health plans more affordable.

Which means the employees will probably have to start paying a co-pay at the same clinics they were attending for free.

Pure and simple: it's a mess. We all know it. Getting Congress, the Senate, and the Prez to realize it is another thing entirely.

Submitted by Tish G on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 14:49

Income tax on DP insurance

The downside when you use domestic partner benefits is that insurance services payments are taxable as income to the employee partner. So it's not quite the same treatment as with a spouse, unfortunately.

Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media
Feed your mobile jones

Submitted by mobilejones on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 18:18

Absolutely true...

Still cheaper than paying for my own coverage as I do now, but certainly shows you one more example of how marriage has legal benefits you can't get any other way.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Submitted by Elisa Camahort on Wed, 03/08/2006 - 19:17

Unfortunately in our case,

Unfortunately in our case, it's my spouse who works to get the medical insurance that doesn't pay for my boys therapy - but that's all part of the fun of living in American I believe.
Cheers

McEwen Whitterer on Autism
http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com
e-mail; m.mcewen-asker@att.net

Submitted by mcewen on Sun, 12/03/2006 - 19:50