Health Insurance at Work

I’m one of the 158 million Americans who get health insurance through our jobs. My plan is a decent one. I like my primary care physician, and she’s good about referring me to a specialist if I need one. Seven years ago, I faced a life-threatening condition that required major surgery. I got excellent care, and my insurance paid what it was supposed to without giving me any grief.

You may say, “Gee, texaslupine, you’re one of the lucky ones. Why would you want to mess with a system that’s working for you?”

Because even from where I sit, I can tell the system is broken.

Two weeks ago, I compared our current health care mess to a slow-motion train wreck. Let’s say I’m riding that train, in a Pullman car close to the back end. Somewhere up ahead, my train has collided head-on with another in the middle of a high trestle. Both locomotives are doing a swan dive into the gorge, with cars careening off behind them. The car I’m riding in is still on the tracks –- for the moment, anyway -- but there’s no reason to think it’ll stay there.

I’m a State of Texas employee. I’ve been with the state nine years. Before that, I spent a few years on staff at The University of Texas. Which means that since 1996, I’ve had health insurance through the Employees Retirement System. I know it’s a valuable benefit, way better than a lot of my friends have. But still, I’ve seen that benefit erode over time.

• When I worked at UT, and when I first signed on with the state, employees had a choice of health plans. Everyone had access to the self-insured plan administered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and depending on where a person lived, there might be three or four HMOs available. Nowadays, there may be one HMO in a given area; in many parts of the state, the self-insured plan is the only choice.
  
• In my job at UT, I was amazed to find that health insurance was in effect on my first day. Other places I’d worked had a waiting period of one to six months before new employees could enroll. Well, state employees used to be covered from day one, but not any more. New people coming in have a three-month waiting period. This doesn’t affect me personally, since I’m already in the system. But it’s another example of benefits being gradually chipped away.
  
• Earlier this year, state employees were notified that our health care plan was out of money and might be forced to make some changes. I was invited to fill out a survey, which basically presented a range of unhappy options and asked me to pick the ones I hated least. The result? Our monthly premiums will increase next month, and so will our co-pays for doctor visits, hospital stays and prescription drugs. And the ERS website ominously states, “More changes will be necessary in the near future.”

Yes, and with all the recent news about state budget cuts, there’s no guarantee that I’ll even have a job two years from now.

Somewhere out there, I hear the faint sound of a violin playing “My Heart Bleeds…” Okay, I’ll stop whining, and I really wasn’t asking for sympathy. I just wanted to share a story that is, I believe, representative of what’s happening everywhere. I suspect all Americans are paying more for less coverage than they were ten years ago.

… that is, if they can get any coverage at all. We’ll talk about that next time.