High Health Care Costs Going Higher
Link to article
– Name Witheld by Request
After 17 years, I left a large telecomm company to go with a spinoff. Although disappointed in the amount of money I received as compensation for my pension, I left the company to get more updated skills to make myself more marketable in the future. Well, in the dot com crash, the spinoff died. I’ve been searching for interesting, challenging full-time work since. I have been on contract assignments but I’d like to hang my hat in one place and enjoy time off (vacations, sick days), benefits, and a decent salary. My salary has dramatically been reduced. Technical writing work is often off-shored. What isn’t off-shored seems to be given to younger, cheaper employees.
Now, I’m over 50. My income is back to what it was in the late 70s because I’m only able to get employment with small companies or contract positions. I’m faced with paying my own health care benefits. If I need to go with a Comprehensive Heath Insurance Program (CHIP) provided by the state, my health care costs are over $500 a month, which is often over a fourth of my take home pay. When I can least afford health care costs (being underemployed), my heath care costs are the highest … and headed to get higher.
CHIPs programs are available to people who have been rejected by a health insurance provider and/or someone for whom the quoted rates are higher than the CHIPs program. I was on the CHIPs program a few years ago. It was underwritten in IL by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It thought the coverage was pretty good. Currently, I have coverage for 18 months through a past employer. Here’s the link for the IL program.
http://www.chip.state.il.us/
I was researching that for my brother, who lives in FL. The CHIPs program there hasn’t taken new folks for many years — too many people wanting to take advantage of it.