Health care is a basic human right, not a privilege. For some reason, we’ve allowed ourselves as Americans to be fooled into accepting that one must be blessed with “means” to actuate appropriate health care. As a nation we have failed to realize that our health care system is a barometer of our society’s value for human life.

-Me

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Health Care/Coverage Costs

I recently promised to keep my readers updated on the specific costs of health coverage and health care for my family. My main way of doing this is to include in the side bar of my blog a running total of my expenses.

Please notice on the right hand side my tallies thus far this year. At this rate I will spend around $6,271.02 on health care this year. Amazingly enough, this is around what I budgeted for (exactly $6367.84). At this rate, I will spend approximately 20% of my income on health care, where currently I am spending approximately 24.6%, and last year I spent around 26% of my income on health care.

One very important factor to keep in mind when viewing my families' particular situation in regards to costs of health care is that both Sandis and Gracie currently have Medicaid. This means that the ONLY person in my family who incurs actual out-of-pocket costs is myself. To simplify even further, my family is spending 24.6% of its income on MY health care. One person.

Is this equitable, accessible, appropriate, affordable health care and coverage? Or is this something more sinister?

You be the judge.

Also, I'd really love to hear from other families with chronic illnesses as to what percentages of THEIR income is spent on healthcare. Call me curious.

3 comments:

Lili said...

Last year we spent 26% of our income on healthcare. Those are my expenses alone.

Maddy said...

Nip of on over and collect your award petal.
Best wishes

Anonymous said...

Let's see...

There are two type 1 diabetics in our house:

Insurance premiums: $8200
Doctor's visits ($20 per visit): $200
ER visits ($100 per pop): $200
Prescriptions: nil (our insurance is REALLY good on diabetes-related drugs and pump supplies)

All in all we probably spent about $9500 which would be about 13% of gross income.

And by the way, my brother lived with severe CP until he was 34 years old.