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PART II OF III: Post-college: Many stuck in health care limbo
Life after UW for some students leads to untreated sicknesses, difficulty finding affordable treatment
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Also by Allie Tempus:
- Is rushing to sign a lease the best option? (November 24, 2009)
- PART II OF III: Post-college: Many stuck in health care limbo (October 29, 2009)
- Students unaware of police cameras throughout State Street (October 7, 2009)
- Go Big Read point of campus debate (September 23, 2009)
- UW senior running for mayor of Neenah (September 9, 2009)
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Carl Hutter returned to Wisconsin from Ecuador with a few hundred pictures and a rash on his arm. At 24, the University of Wisconsin senior has not had health insurance for years, but his rash was bad enough to prompt a visit to the dermatologist. Five months later, after a biopsy and a prescription for medicine he said “doesn’t do anything,” Hutter still has the rash — and an outstanding bill.
“I haven’t paid yet,” Hutter said, impish grin and gleaming eyes camouflaging his deadpan tone. “They keep sending me letters. I should probably do that.”
Kicked off of his parents’ Humana health insurance plan at 18, Hutter is used to weathering occasional storms of sickness without doctor care or prescription medicine. He said he remembers looking up health insurance plans a long time ago and writing them off as impossibilities, knowing his school loans would only cover the barest of basics.
“There’s just no way I could ever afford health insurance,” Hutter said, with a rattling cough that still lingers from a bout of H1N1 flu virus. “I just hope that I get better from whatever I have.”
Hutter’s case is hardly uncommon. UW students have long found themselves in health care limbo upon graduation, thrown from their parents’ health insurance and forced to find their own, most commonly through a job.
But in today’s stringent economy where even experienced professionals are floating between jobs, the market for government and private health care is competitive and costly in ways students may not anticipate.
UW senior Cady Gifford will also lose her health insurance when she graduates in December. She briefly considered buying into her mother’s employer-provided United Health insurance until a representative with the company discouraged it.
“She laughed and said she could look into it, but it’s probably over $400 (a month),” Gifford said.
Gifford, fresh off a week working two jobs and an internship, twirls a strand of hair between her fingers as she hashes out her options. As an environmental studies major, Gifford has thought about applying to the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, both of which offer health coverage. Beyond that, Gifford said, her prospects for health insurance are limited.
“In my field, in order to get experience, you have to do unpaid internships,” Gifford said. “So it’s a lot of part-time work.”
It’s an experience that 2008 UW graduate Joe Silberschmidt can relate to. Silberschmidt guesses he has sent out over 50 job applications since graduation, living with his parents and working odd jobs as a painter and mover in the meanwhile.
“It’s not a good market right now,” Silberschmidt said. “I applied to, I think, five more jobs this morning, and who knows what that brings my total to.”
Silberschmidt said living without health care leaves him constantly on edge. Babysitting for his niece with H1N1 flu, driving the car and even going for a run, he said, pose risks he never thought about while at Madison. While finding a job with health benefits is his first choice, Silberschmidt said he finds himself in a catch-22 as his job search continues into its second year.
“As time rolls by, that just means less and less money in the bank account and less and less desire to spend however many dollars a month paying for health care,” Silberschmidt said.
Until this year, purchasing private health insurance was the only option for Wisconsin adults with no children or employer-provided health care.
However, June 15, 2009, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services opened its BadgerCare Plus Core program to those adults for applications.
The Plus Core program is the first Wisconsin state government health care option for adults with no dependent children, part of Gov. Jim Doyle’s initiative to provide health coverage access to 98 percent of Wisconsin residents.
Applicants, who must make less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, pay a $60 annual application fee — with no monthly premium — for a comprehensive plan that covers everything from doctor and emergency room visits to speech therapy.
“For so many years there’s always this black hole in the middle,” said Sarah Bartz, an economic support supervisor for northern Wisconsin’s Shawano County Department of Social Services. “Basically, people who graduated from college up to the time that they would have children or otherwise be disabled, there was nothing for them.”
At the time of its design three years ago, DHS spokesperson Seth Boffeli said it was estimated that 80,000 Wisconsin residents would be eligible for Plus Core. The program was capped at 54,000 to maintain a cost-neutrality requirement from the federal government.
As the economy nosedived, Boffeli said it was apparent that far more than 80,000 people would become eligible as Wisconsinites lost jobs. The program rapidly ballooned, receiving 76,000 applications and forcing a suspension of Plus Core mere months after it opened.
“What we didn’t know is that we would get five to six hundred people applying seven days a week for three months,” Boffeli said.
On its last open day, Plus Core received hundreds of online applications per hour. A wait list was started for those who did not meet the deadline. Boffeli said there are currently 1,300 people on the waitlist. He estimates it will take months to sift through the 76,000 applications and possibly longer before the Plus Core program is reopened.
“From what I have found out at a supervisor’s forum conference call, they have no idea when this will open back up again,” Bartz said.
Until then, college graduates must find private health insurance or a job.
But that is not to say private companies have nothing to offer. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wisconsin released a cost-conscious health insurance option in March 2009 called SmartSense, which offers coverage for premiums “ranging from as little as $46 to $157 per month for a healthy 25-year old male.”
The option, created for students and people between jobs, is more comprehensive than a typical low-cost plan, said Scott Larrivee, ABCBS spokesperson.
“With these plans you can go to see your doctor and it covers preventative services,” Larrivee said. “Sometimes people get just catastrophic plans, so only if they’re in an accident can they get any sort of care. These are much more similar to what people might’ve had through an employer or their parents.”
Hutter, Gifford, Silberschmidt and many like them are left among these ever-shifting options to continue the job search and hope against hope they won’t need what they do not have.
“I’m still young,” Silberschmidt said, reaching for optimism. “I still have that certain sort of immortality that a young 20-something has.”
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Some may be now eligible beginning January 1 because of this:
Section 632.885 [of state statute] concerns coverage of dependents. It applies to disability insurance policies as defined in s. 632.895 (1) (a) and self-insured health plans of the state or of a county, city, village, town, or school district, along with limited service health organizations, preferred provider plans and defined network plans. It contains the following provisions:
Insurers that offer disability insurance policies and self-insured health plans are required to offer, and if requested by an applicant or insured, coverage for an adult child of the applicant or insured as a dependent of the applicant or insured if the child satisfies all of the following: The child is over 17 but less than 27 years of age; The child is not married; and The child is not eligible for coverage under a group health benefit plan that is offered by the child’s employer and for which the amount of the child’s premium contribution is no greater than the premium amount for his or her coverage as a dependent under the parent’s plan. Notwithstanding the above requirements, the coverage requirements apply to an adult child who satisfies all of the following: The child is a full-time student, regardless of age; The child is not married and the child is not eligible for coverage under a group health benefit plan that is offered by the child’s employer and for which the amount of the child’s premium contribution is no greater than the premium amount for his or her coverage as a dependent under the parent’s plan; and The child was under 27 years of age when he or she was called to federal active duty in the National Guard or in a reserve component of the U.S. armed forces while the child was attending, on a full-time basis, an institution of higher education.
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Sigh. I read this article after writing some bills this morning and doing some paperwork. I owe thousands in medical bills (despite ‘insurance’), and tens of thousands in student loans. To think there are countries in the world that take care of their citizens because it is the moral thing to do, and the best thing in the long run for their country. Just about any country in Europe is looking better and better these days…
IP hash: 552fc6fa
Sigh, I don’t have a job and other people should pay for this shortcoming. Why should you always look to other people to subsidize your costs. Buck up and get a job and stop complaining about it. Take a year off school and work. Hell work during school. It’s time to grow up a little bit and stop sucking from the tit of another person. Every country in Europe has a worse health care system than the US. By taking care of their citizens I hope you mean pay for their citizens medical costs, after they’ve waited 9-12 months for the procedure.
IP hash: 63a57ce3
Typical knee-jerk Republican nonsense. Did you even read what he said? Why assume he is “damn lazy-jobless liberal”? He obviously has a job since he has insurance and is paying the bills himself. His point is that his bills are so great, that he is having trouble paying them. He isn’t leaching off of other people, he just needs help because he IS taking care of himself. Also, please cite a legitimate source for “every European country has a worse health care system than the US” and “after they’ve waited 9-12 months for the procedure”.
IP hash: 3412785f
“He isn’t leaching off of other people, he just needs help because he IS taking care of himself.”
The commenter was not asking for help, he was saying that the moral thing to do was have the government force others to help. It is not moral. Other people are working hard too and it is not moral to take from them just because he needs help.
IP hash: ceeca1c1
Don’t put words into my mouth. A moral country takes care of its citizens, but that does not mean it has to take the form of a handout at the expense of others. It means that we have systems in place that serve the needs of citizens, not just the bottom line of companies. We all put in because we all take out in some form or another. It’s called the greater good, and inludes everything from public fire departments to safe drinking water. If you really want the government to stop ‘forcing’ you to help others, stop paying taxes, provide your own education to your kids, put out your own fires, police your own neighborhood, and build your own roads. Oh, if you are an in-state student, start paying the full tuition that out-of-staters pay - you are being subsidized thousands of dollars because the WI ‘forces’ its citizens to pay taxes and help you through reduced tuition costs.
IP hash: 3412785f
Put words in your mouth? Here are your own words:
“If you really want the government to stop ‘forcing’ you to help others, stop paying taxes, provide your own education to your kids, put out your own fires, police your own neighborhood, and build your own roads.”
You can put “forcing” in quotes, but this does not change the fact that I am prevented from doing all these things. If I try, the police will throw me in jail. This is force, and this is what you are advocating, by your own words.
Unless, of course you are Harry Reid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mRSI8yWwg&feature=youtube_gdata
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Based on your comments, it seems that 1) you don’t have the guts to stand behing your statments, or you would refuse to take advantage of government services. 2) You say nothing about your state tuition subsidy, and are probably an in-state student - man up and pay the full tuition! 3) You have a lot of growing up to do, and are either young and healthy enough to go without, or are covered by your parents’ insurance. Just wait until you have to enter the real world, and have to find insurance that you can afford, doesn’t screw you over with exclusions and loopholes, and refuses to pay for pre-existing conditions.
IP hash: ceeca1c1
Please. The charges you make are false rhetoric and completely baseless. Every country in Europe has a worse health care system? Straight up lie. Why is then that the U.S. ranks 37th in health outcomes yet spends five times as much? Look at the countries with better health outcomes: France #1, Spain #7, United Kingdom #18. For crying out loud, even Colombia (#22), Saudi Arabia (#26), and Morocco (#29) have better health outcomes! A country that takes care of its citizens ensures greater prosperity and strength, and part of that includes providing health care through a variety of delivery systems. It seems that opponents of genuine health care coverage are more concerned with the profits of insurance companies than the health of American citizens. Based on your comments, I would have to wonder whether or not you have actually been in the situation of having to figure health care coverage for yourself and your family, or whether or not you are fortunate enough to be young and healthy, wealthy, or covered by someone else’s insurance.
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These “health outcomes” ratings are nonsense because they base them on egalitarian standards, not medical standards. And it doesn’t take a study to show where the good health care is. Just look at the fact that no one goes to Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Morocco for top-notch medical care, they come to the U.S.
Profits are good. Profits are the result of creating that which other people value. The freedom (what’s left of it) to make a profit in the U.S. is why we have drug and medical innovations, iphones, software, etc.
IP hash: ceeca1c1
Awesome. If you have enough money to afford insurance, don’t have any pre-existing conditions, and never get sick, you’re all set. Top-notch care is only good enough if you can afford it in the first place, which fewer and fewer people are able to do.
IP hash: 3412785f
Top-notch care, like all values in life, is only possible if someone creates it, or some other value that is exchanged for it. So, yes, someone has to “afford” it or it wouldn’t exist.
If you can’t afford it, you’d better support a system that allows the producers to reduce costs so that you can. You have no right to take it from others.
The reason fewer and fewer people are able to afford health insurance is because the industry has been shackled by government regulations, which drive up the costs.
Laws that require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, for example, destroy the very ability to sell insurance. Insurance is a product where people pay into the system while they’re healthy, as INSURANCE against getting sick (just like you buy car insurance BEFORE you crash your car.)
What will happen to insurance costs when companies are required to pay-out on people who haven’t paid a dime? Of course the costs will increase. Then people will scream that insurance is even less affordable. Go figure.
IP hash: ceeca1c1
Oh, and by the way, I am a full-time student, and work two jobs, neither of which offer insurance. The thousands in medical bills is from the SHIP “insurance” I purchased. So yes, it really does appear that I am ‘sucking from the tit of another person’ as you said.
IP hash: d3d928c4
As she twirls her hair through her fingers? Sounds like she needs a job in the sciences
IP hash: 3412785f
No one ever asks: why is insurance so expensive and medical costs keep rising? Why, when other things in life, like computers and food get cheaper and more widely available, is medical care getting more expensive and less accessible?
Might it have something to do with the fact that health care is highly regulated? Might it have to do with government policies that reduce competition, like not being able to buy/sell insurance across state lines or the tax penalties for purchasing non-employer insurance, or the massive price manipulation and cost-shift that occurs because of Medicare and Medicaid, or the mandates on insurance companies to provide services regardless of whether individuals want or need them, etc?
It should also be pointed out that the Obama administration is actively trying to pass legislation that will make insurance more expensive and shift costs to younger, healthy people like students.
IP hash: f63e1cc6
Because 30 cents of every health care dollar goes to adminstration, and with over 1000 insurance plans, there is excessive waste and repetition.
Insurance companies rake in millions while thousands of people go without the care they need because people bow down (or rather, bend over), to the capitalist gods.
Single-payer health insurance is the only way we can reduce costs and provide comprehensive coverage. Unfortunately, we won’t be getting that anytime soon.
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Capitalism accepts no gods, aristocrats, dictators, serfs nor masters. Under capitalism, no one and nothing comes above each individuals’ right to pursue his own life and happiness and trade with others to mutual benefit.