Mary Kay: Write to your Representatives.

Cal,

Thanks for your input. I am volunteering to visit Roscoe Bartletts' office this Thursday to voice my support for the proposed bill. I've attached a letter I wrote for whoever wants to read. I've also emailed it to the White House. Don't know if it will help, but can't hurt. I'll send the link for the bill and office visit guide under separate email.

I hope all is well with family and friends.

Sincerely,
Mary Kay

The Reality of Health Insurance

I am self-employed. Two is a group. Since I've had to cut my work force and their hours I’ve lost my group coverage and they’ve lost theirs. I have Type 1 Diabetes and other health issues which means I have pre-existing conditions. Unless I'm a part of a group, Health Insurance will not cover anything that has to do with my Diabetes of 28 years, Asthma, my lower back, serious allergies, or serious IBS. My insulin alone cost me $279.00/month after the Medicare discount card. I had no other prescription drug coverage between 10/1/08 and 4/1/09. My health insurance coverage of more than 10 years was cancelled and I had to go onto a conversion policy on 10/1/08, with no dental or prescription drug coverage.

Also, because I’ve had to cut my employees’ hours, they are not eligible for health insurance, nor can I afford it now because of the economy.

So on 4/1/09, I had to beg to go on my husbands’ health insurance. I had no other choice. Which wouldn’t seem bad but we are separated and will be divorcing in 2010. When he divorced his first wife, he changed the deductible to $1,200.00. He gives his employees a check for the $1,200.00 to cover it. His ex-wife gets alimony. I get neither. So I was forced to buy my insulin from Nova Scotia because it was $125.00 instead of paying almost $400.00 for the insulin and running it through my husbands’ health insurance against the deductible. I didn’t have the $400.00 to pay for something so basic. I would be dead without it. The insulin didn’t come in the 10 – 12 days like it was supposed to. So I ran out and had to call the doctor late at night on the weekend to get another prescription for one vial. I thought I could buy it without a prescription. Some kinds can be. Mine, Novolog, cannot. My pharmacy in Boonsboro was closed. I was alone, afraid and in tears. In addition to not having control over my deductible, my husband has threatened to cancel me if I don’t do what he wants with other issues that have nothing to do with health insurance, even though he promised it would be good for 1 year. The second time he threatened to cancel my health insurance was the day after I left him a message that I’d broken my arm.

What it comes down to is that I need to be able to make my own choices for coverage, doctors, prescription coverage and the premiums I can afford to pay. If I could get coverage on my own without having two as a group, and the insurance would cover my pre-existing conditions, I would feel so much more secure.

Lastly, the deduction we receive for paying for health insurance is only 50% of what we actually pay for ourselves and our employees and it’s not on the Schedule C. The credit is taken on the 1040 which reduces our AGI only, so we’re still paying social security taxes on the health insurance premiums we pay, in addition to Federal and State taxes on half.

Every day that I have health insurance coverage, I thank God, even though my husband continues to threaten canceling my coverage. I’ve been without before and not only are there the many, many medicals bills, there is also the issue of feeling like a second class citizen when the emergency room sends you out the door after giving you so many drugs that you can’t put on your own sweat pants. The first question out of any medical providers’ mouth is: “What insurance do you have?” If an individual doesn’t have insurance they either won’t take you as a patient or you have to pay up front. In addition, without coverage, individuals don’t receive the benefit of the discounted, contract price the insurance companies get. An individual pays the full price. The Conversion policy I was on only provided 75/25 coverage and a hospital stay in CCU in February 09 left me with thousands of dollars in medical bills I can’t afford to pay.

As far as I can tell, these issues would be resolved with the bill currently proposed.

Sincerely,
Mary Kay