Pathologizing the unfortunate and blaming the rest of us
Two stories were featured in the Columbus Dispatch August 27 article about the working poor not having health insurance, but both demonstrated the government insurance system for low income families is working--they do have health insurance--they don't have the employment they desire. But that's not the government's fault, it's not my fault, and in neither case, is it their fault. Getting a teaching degree isn't the same as getting a job in a market like Columbus, Ohio, loaded with colleges and plenty of teachers; getting diabetes may mean you chose the wrong parents.One family has dual incomes, $80,000 in student debt, and 5 children, and therefore qualifies for Medicaid. The other is a single parent with a debilitating disease, who lost her job, and was given free medication until she qualified for assistance. In other words, the system, patchwork though it is, is working but it doesn't allow for the perks of a "middle class life style."
- Four years ago, Gwen Brown, 31, and her husband were struggling to make ends meet while raising their five school-age children. Then she worked as a resource leader for the Girls Scouts and her husband worked as a barber.
She hoped her finances would improve after earning a bachelor's degree last May at Capital University. But with no full-time teaching position, she still qualifies for Medicaid for her children.
She owes $80,000 in student loans and wonders why she's still straddling the poverty line with a college degree.
"We did things to change our lives and nothing has changed," said Brown of the West Side. "That's where my frustration lies."
Last year Penny Self of Grove City, who has had diabetes for about 12 years, lost her job and health insurance. Free samples of her medication from her former doctor kept her healthy until she got Medicaid.
Even before Self lost her job at Sofa Express as a credit representative last year, she tried not to make too many doctors' office visits because she could barely afford the $25 co-payments on her company insurance, she said.
"Now if I get sick or if my son gets sick I don't have to struggle with the co-payments and I don't have to try to be a doctor at home when he is sick," said Self, 43.
