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Story of the Month
Impossible Choices
Jeffrey Phillips, a pastor from Arlington Heights, is frustrated with the health care system. Both in his work and his personal life he has seen the injustices in the way our country distributes health care. In the past year the issue has really hit home, as he has watched his mother-in-law, Juanita Summers, struggle with being uninsured.
For 30 years, Juanita worked at a factory in McCook that made computer monitors. All the time she was employed there she had health insurance paid for by either the company or her union. The company fell on hard times several years ago, and they began to lay off workers. Due to her seniority, Juanita was able to avoid the cut for a while, but not indefinitely. In November of 2007, she too was laid off, leaving her without a job and struggling to maintain health insurance at the age of 62.
Juanita began collecting unemployment in December, but those payments were not enough to cover both her rent and her COBRA premiums. “We had to make some quick decisions in our family about what to do to give her help,” recalls Pastor Phillips. He sold some investments to help pay for Juanita’s health insurance and other expenses, but was only able to cover the COBRA payment[s] for a month. At this time, Juanita had a difficult decision to make. She could move in with Pastor Phillips’ family, and lose the independence of living on her own, or she could stop paying her COBRA premiums and become uninsured. She chose to keep that independence and live alone, not wishing to burden her family. While Pastor Phillips worries that it may have been a better idea for Juanita to keep her insurance, he understands how hard the decision was. “That’s just a terrible choice to have to make.”
Uninsured since January 1st of this year, Juanita must cobble together what available resources she can. Fortunately, she has gained access to a primary care provider through Access DuPage, an organization that connects uninsured patients to doctors in DuPage County. She and her family do, however, worry about what would happen if she were to get sick and need specialized care, testing, cardiac/oncology treatment, or hospitalization, none of which are covered by the program.
As it is unlikely that Juanita could find affordable private insurance at her age, she is now left holding her breath until she turns 65 and becomes eligible for Medicare. Pastor Phillips sees this situation of part of a larger crisis in health care: “Both as a son-in-law and as a pastor, it is inhumane to have this system that doesn’t cover people. It’s a wasteful and broken system.” This is especially true for older adults, age 50-64, who often find it very difficult to find insurance if they happen to lose coverage before they are 65. Juanita is one of over 260,000 older adults who are uninsured in Illinois. We must take action to make sure those that have worked hard all their lives are not left out in the cold by the health care system.
*If you are in this age group, please help us in illuminating this problem to legislators by filling out our Older Adults Survey.
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