The kids are on state-assisted medical benefits, and her husband’s fully covered through his job. Jessica, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom, is the only one in this Elkhart, Indiana family of six who doesn’t have health insurance.

In recent years when Jessica came back from a doctor’s visit with a diagnosis of relatively minor ailments such as strep throat, her husband would make pencil drawings in their trailer home. He sketched fantasy scenes, populated with moons and star-gazers. By selling his art to supportive community members, the couple was able to offset a portion of medical costs.

But when Jessica was told last March that she needed gall-bladder surgery – immediately – she knew just being crafty would be a hard way of working off medical debt.

Initially, she was told the cost of her surgery alone would be $12,000. The family took the savings set aside in hopes of one day buying a home and put it towards the down payment for the surgeon. The family was cut a break when they got a bank loan and her bill was cut in half by sympathetic providers. They’re paying it all off in monthly installments, but Jessica says, it’s still a struggle to pay up to $300 a month when they have six mouths to feed.

Jessica says she’s looked into putting herself on her husband’s insurance, but the family wouldn’t be able to pay an additional $375 a month on one take-home income of $25,000/year. Nor could they afford, she says, giving up the 2-5% of their income that would go towards a state program designed for the uninsured.

Since her surgery, Jessica’s looking for supplemental income to knock back some of her medical debt. Meantime, she’s become crafty herself, weaving dream catchers from hemp twine and leather. It will be years before the family can pay off the costs of her surgery, and many more before they can begin to realize the classic American dream of owning their own home.

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1 Posted by Susan Bartolone at 07/04/08 01:25 AM

This family had to abandon, or at least indefinitely postpone, their dreams of a better family home, using their savings to pay for emergency health care. Like the shop owner in Carbondale, PA who gave up part of his finger, this is family should not have to make such a choice in America.

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