My Family's Insurance Struggles

My family and I have always been members of Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit HMO that is one of the main providers in the Denver area. My dad worked for Kaiser as a computer programmer for about 20 years. While I was growing up, going to the doctor was no problem. Office visits, prescriptions, most everything only had a five dollar co-pay. We always felt that Kaiser took good care of us.

My Dad has Parkinson's disease, which soon progressed to the point where he could no longer work. He tried working from home for a while, but finally went on disability eight years ago. After that, my Mom, sister, and I could still be covered under his plan for a few more years, but eventually our coverage expired. Mom, a speech therapist, had worked on an on-call basis at a seniors' facility for several years. She became a full-time employee so she could get health insurance. But it was not as good as our old coverage had been. The co-pays were higher, and prescriptions and special procedures could have very high out-of-pocket costs.

Mom has some health problems that affected her work, too, and faced having to work full time and take care of everything around the house. Dad was unable to help, and when I was off at college, it was left all up to her. As the number of patients where she worked grew and her workload got more difficult, she decided she couldn't do it full time anymore. She left the company and switched to working part time at a nursing home instead. She would no longer get health insurance. She signed my sister and me up for individual plans with Kaiser, but could only afford fairly basic ones. Mine has a $200 annual deductible for prescriptions, and until that is reached, a one-month supply can be up to $80.

Dad, meanwhile, is now on Medicare, but the cost of his many prescriptions puts him in the infamous "donut hole" where nothing is covered. Kaiser uses a lot of generic drugs that cost less, but for some there are no generics, since the patent is still in effect. His bills are particularly painful.

After I graduated this year, I've had a hard time finding a job. It will probably be quite a while before I can get one that provides health insurance.