...started with Ethel’s (names have been changed) husband’s being laid off from (insert name of large computer firm here—I think she’d prefer this remain anonymous) in the early 2000s. They sold their house and made pretty good money from it, enough to live on for a couple of years if they lowered their expenses, and moved in with parents. Lamar never got over losing his job, had a stroke three years later, spent four days in the ER hooked up to every machine there is, until a series of MRIs proved he had suffered catastrophic brain damage that was only getting worse with time, and they decided to let him go.
He had health insurance, the shitty kind you get when you have to buy it yourself. After four days in the ER, Lamar’s wife was presented with hospital bills of $80,000, $60k if she paid quickly and in cash. That was $60k after the insurance company paid its part—that was her co-pay. If Lamar hadn’t had a small life insurance policy carried over from his work, his wife would not have been able to pay it. As it was, just her co-pay on the hospital bills blew through about 60% of that life insurance policy.
During this time, Ethel’s father was dying of Alzheimer’s. He was covered by the VA. Ethel took care of him and wasn’t thrilled about having to take him to appointments and hang out in waiting rooms, and she sometimes had to work hard to convince his doctors that he needed his medicine adjusted or some other kind of care he wasn’t getting, but the doctors did usually pay attention, he got pretty good care and his bills were paid. He died in a nursing home with his bank account intact, and thank the fsm he did because Ethel needed to inherit it to pay her own private health insurance bills, since she can’t find work to do that offers her insurance benefits.
Ethel is now paying $500 a month for health insurance for herself and her daughter. She’s got money enough for a while, but doesn’t know what she’ll do when that runs out. She’s in her 50s, she’s gone back to work after raising kids for 15 years (very part time, making less than $1000 a month, and lucky to get it), and she’s trying to get through college so she can qualify for jobs with benefits. In the meantime, she’s spending her savings. If she goes on this way she’ll have to consider moving in with family or friends in five or six years.
She’s not destitute, but she’s in the spot I bet a lot of people are finding themselves in these days: living on savings, or as much savings as the corporations have left us after raiding our retirement accounts, being of the age when the big, expensive doctor bills aren’t far off, and wondering what the fuck she's gonna do. With a few words from my husband’s boss, which we expect any time, it will be me.
I guess this is more a health-care tenterhooks story.