I am among the growing number of Americans who has absolutely no form of health insurance. Last year at around this time, I lost my job as a teacher’s aide. My job offered great health insurance! My husband and I were covered for medical, dental, and vision care. Like many other teachers in California, there was no indication that I was about to lose my job. Suddenly, in the course a single day, I went from being someone with a full time job with benefits, to someone who had no job, and no health insurance.
Naturally, this was extremely stressful. People under stress tend to get sick more often than people who are not completely stressed out for extended periods of time. I have been sick enough to need a doctor a few times this year, and have resisted going, out of fear that we wouldn’t be able to pay for it. My husband is legally blind, which means he has Medicare, but it is Part A only. It doesn’t actually cover much, at all. We discovered this when he needed to visit a doctor this year, and that visit turned into a few more. Neither of us has been to a dentist this year, or to get our eyes checked. It troubles me that an employer has this much power over a person’s health.
Health insurance is very important! So far, my husband and I have been lucky, and have not needed major surgery or a hospital stay. When I first lost my job, I was given the option to use COBRA. This might have extended my health insurance a little longer. However, the monthly payment that COBRA wanted was higher than I would be getting from my Unemployment Insurance Benefits in one month. COBRA was too expensive.
We are doing a little bit better financially now then we were when I first became unemployed. My husband and I have decided that it is time to see what our options might be for health insurance. He called the insurance company we use for car insurance and homeowners insurance and we are going to meet with a representative in the next few days. We are going to ask questions about health insurance and life insurance, and see what our insurance company can offer. This is the first step towards getting health insurance after losing a job.
Image by by Steve Snodgrass on Flickr