Guaranteed Healthcare

A few years ago, our family went to pastor a new congregation in RI. Though my husband is/was ordained with a large denomination, insurance policies were not provided by the denomination in that region of the country. The new congregation was providing housing and a very modest salary. I worked part-time as we certainly could not afford childcare. We had two children (ages 10 and 5) and a new baby.

My husband finally located an insurance company which provided a plan for which we hopefully could afford to pay the monthly premium. The salesman sat at our kitchen table, in our cramped home, and told us that this was a plan that only covered a portion of an office visit and emergencies; however "emergency" was defined as "accident".

He joked, "If your husband has a heart attack in the middle of the night, we won't cover the ER trip. So....just hit him in the head and knock him out! Then we will cover it!"

I calmly and deliberately asked, "So you're saying, if my 6-month old spikes a fever of 106 and goes into convulsions on a Saturday night, you won't cover her ER visit?"

He said that I should just call the doctor and ask him/her to meet me at the office. I asked if he would provide a list of these physicians who would go to their offices in the middle of the night on a week-end. He laughed nervously.

The great irony of this story is that all of this took place at the time Hillary was presenting the Clinton Healthcare plan on Capitol Hill and as I was hearing my employer and members of our congregation (many of whom were current or retired Navy folk, with healthcare provided) laugh at and maligned the Clinton proposal. Somehow, we made it through those years with no need for emergency services, and we were able to squeeze out the premium payment every month (though other bills had to go unpaid in order to do so).

At present, the Seminary where I teach pays the premium for our entire family (nearly $1000/month!) and I am very grateful. But I do know the plight of the "working poor" and the fear of the mother who doesn't know if her child will get the medical care she needs because of a lack of money.