The bright red awning of Ken’s insurance agency is hard to miss driving through Fayetteville, population 2,600, in an area of West Virginia known for coal mining and intrepid outdoors activities like BASE jumping and white water rafting – the kinds of activities you just might want to have a good health insurance policy for.

And yet, as Ken knows all too well, good health coverage is hard to come by these days.

Starting the insurance agency with his wife Kathy seven years ago, Ken left behind a company job and a health plan that “covered everything”. It’s the kind of thing, he said, that you don’t miss until it’s gone.

Ken sells mostly homeowners and auto insurance. He’ll also sell the occasional health insurance policy too – but he has reservations. Compared to the other products he sells, Ken says the coverage offered by individual health insurance plans is so poor he hesitates to promote them. What if his customers think all of the other policies he sells are so limited and unreliable?

And it’s not via word of mouth or even customer complaints that Ken knows the shortcomings of a policy with the insurance carrier he uses. He and Kathy have one themselves. Between the $500 monthly premiums, a $5,000 deductible, and no coverage for preventative care, he’s come to the conclusion that “health insurance is confusing for everyone and it is not a level playing field.” This coming from a guy that sells it.

Every year the $100 to $200 increases in their monthly premiums squeeze their budget a little tighter, making Ken wonder how long it’ll be feasible for them to run their own business. He’s seen friends and colleagues return to work just for the health insurance at an age when they should be thinking about retirement and wonders if this might be his fate as well. At age 49, his premiums are already skyrocketing. What will they be like when he’s 60?

As confusing and expensive as health insurance is, surely it would seem that the agents and brokers who sell it would have a leg up on the rest of us – a sort of insider’s secret to getting quality coverage at a price that won’t break the bank. But the grim reality is that in a health care system as broken as ours, inside or outside of the game, there is no assurance of good health insurance to be found.

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comments (4)

Comments

1 Posted by Ken Bragg at 01/12/09 06:51 AM

I would like to thank Meg and Blake for the opportunity to discuss the issues with them regarding this pathetic system of Healthcare in this Great Country where our elected officials seem to be the only ones with viable health Insurance.
Since the interview,we have seen our economic situation in America go from bad to worse and we now hear of 2.5 million Americans losing their jobs just in the past couple of months and of course we hear about it daily in the media.
remember the large majority of these Americans will or have lost their healthcare and while we are addressing ways of getting these people back to work we are not addressing the immediate need of at least helping to provide them some type of short term healthcare.
It is my belief that we should be writing our elected officials and let them know now that this election is over that we do not want partisan bickering about issues of gay marriage,abortion or gun control etc.. but instead we should DEMAND 3 things of top priority.
1.National Security
2.Jobs and economy
3.healthcare
4.Energy solutions
If we Americans stand up and demand that Politicians and citizens focus on these issues we will see the change we need however if the same old bickering and partisan politics continue we will see the tragic irreversible harm that will fall upon this nation.
Lastly it is my belief that prayer would be a great way for all of us to start looking for answers.

2 Posted by Lyta at 01/27/09 09:26 PM

It seems Republicans don't want women to have access for reproductive care and they are too busy fighting the democrats to care that anyone but them has any healthcare. They have free healthcare for life, they really do not care if the public does.

3 Posted by JMA at 03/19/09 09:55 PM

Since when does the Government owe the citizens health care coverage? I don't find this a Constitutional function of the Government, and am surprised so many people want to send their money to Washington to have a little of it turned back around.

4 Posted by Pediatric Corpus Christi at 07/02/09 05:29 AM

Does our lawmakers serious about health care reform? I hope they are, since the citizens are waiting for it to improve. Whether they are republican or democrats, they should be thinking about what's best for their citizens.

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