It seems as if its a growing practice in state and even local governments to hire teachers to work hours that put them just below the level where it is expected that they get health benefits. But, often those teachers are expected to be "on call" or have other constraints on their time that preclude them from getting other jobs that do offer insurance. The pay often isn't good either. When the same states mandate that people buy insurance they can't afford, this whole situation seems especially unfair.
"A group of part-time community college instructors filed a lawsuit yesterday against the state, saying that hundreds of adjunct faculty in Massachusetts' public higher education system are unfairly denied health care coverage. The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of five instructors, follows nearly a decade of unsuccessful wrangling with state legislators to get an adjunct health insurance bill enacted into law. It also comes as schools, particularly community colleges, are increasingly turning to adjuncts amid burgeoning enrollment"
Read the teacher story in the Boston Globe
Massachusetts has among the highest health care costs in the nation, and health insurance premium costs there under the insurance mandate have been rising in cost at several times the rate of inflation. Drug costs have also been rising far higher than the national average which is also much higher than inflation. Drug costs in the United States are as much as four times higher than in other developed nations, and sometimes as much as sixteen or twenty times higher than the average price of those same drugs in the world as a whole.
From "Costs are keeping Patients from Care"
"Previously it was the uninsured,’’ Rukavina said. "Now we are seeing people with insurance, but they are struggling to pay their bills.’’
The problem appears particularly acute for people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, and cancer. They make frequent visits to doctors and often take multiple medications.
The issue has become so widespread that state lawmakers have scheduled a hearing Wednesday to address aspects of the problem, including a proposal to allow residents with chronic illnesses to buy prescribed medications and medical devices without facing a copayment or deductible.
As healthcare costs rise and the recession’s grip has tightened, more employers have slashed their health costs by shifting more costs onto their workers, according to Families USA, a Washington-based consumer group. As a result, more employees are shouldering heftier copayments."
The rising costs of healthcare in Massachusetts has led to huge yearly cuts in benefits for those in the state-subsidized health insurance program for those living in poverty, (a model for the national healthcare plan proposed for the middle of the next decade) as well as many legal immigrants losing access to the program.
Columbia Journalism Review's series on healthcare in Massachusetts
There have also been allegations that price deals made in the state were agreed upon by providers to deliberately take advantage of the new, mandated purchasing.
Recently, the Massachusetts program and the idea of mandated underinsurance in general, has come under fire because its apparent that many low and middle income persons are effectively being prevented from getting healthcare they can afford. In some cases people are in essence being forced to PAY TWICE for some healthcare, once for the mandated underinsurance, hich turns out to be a maze of difficuties, and then a second time for an uncensored doctor and often uncovered service that they need.
From the Hospital to Bankruptcy Court
WARNING: THIS NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE FALSELY IMPLIES THAT OUT OF POCKET FEES ARE CAPPED FOT THOSE WHO ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR FEDERAL ASSISTANCE ON SUBSIDIES STARTING MID DECADE - THAT IS NOT TRUE. THERE ARE NO MEDICAL BANKRUPTCIES IN CANADA, TAIWAN OR ALMOST ALL EU COUNTRIES, THOUGH