I have been in the workplace for over 1/4 of a century, having obtained my first job during the early 1980s. I was once "secure" in the knowledge I could take any member of my family for a visit to our family doctor, without worry of being able to afford it. This is now not the case.
I have personally experienced the decline of my family's health care coverage, especially during the last decade. I work for a fortune 500 hundred company; which initially, offered some the best health benefits in the United States. Since the early 2000s, the cost of my family's benefits has increased each year to the point where I can almost no longer afford to even carry it. I am required to pay almost $100 a week to insure my family. We no longer have an affordable co pay, but am required to fulfill a percentage of the total of each and every visit. For those of us living on a budget, this is almost impossible. Our family can no longer run to the Dr. for a sore throat, a rash or even a mild fever. Our visits now must be only, "emergency in nature." When I read all the "benefits" listed on this government website (check the link below) I realize that by not allowing families to pay an affordable low co pay, they are putting a stranglehold on health care.
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/statehealthreform/kentucky.html
I do believe some of the benefits listed on the government website are good, for example, the ability to keep an older child insured until the age of 26 was a "much needed" benefit for families. However, there needs to be additional thought given to the fact that having a low co pay allows families to have access to a doctor, without worry of not being able to pay a large fee, after a large deductible is met. I currently pay $4,000 a year for family health insurance but we do not receive any benefits until I pay an additional $500 deductible each year.
Families need their co pays returned. Most aspects of Kentucky's health care reform only works for the uninsured, not the insured.
M Smith
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