Cincinnati Enquirer
Ryan Luckie and his team at Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank try to help the uninsured get coverage before things get so dire.
Health care navigators, as they’re known, guide people through their options, from employer-based coverage, which many low-wage workers don’t have, to Medicaid or Obamacare’s public insurance exchanges.
The first hurdle, Luckie said, is convincing people it’s worth their time and money to invest in health insurance. Even low-cost plans, which, depending on eligibility, can sometimes be purchased for about $50 a month, can be too expensive or provide inadequate coverage, or both.
“In their mind, it’s not a financial option,” said Luckie, the Freestore’s director of public benefit services. “It is a significant line item in most people’s budget.”
He said many of the people who come to him wait until they have a health crisis to sign up, which means they’ve already incurred substantial medical bills. He said it’s a little like waiting to get car insurance until right after an accident.
“It always takes something catastrophic,” Luckie said. “That is the catalyst for most people.”
Elizabeth Thuranira, a navigator for UHCAN in southwest Ohio, said she’s found many clients also struggle with the complexity of the online exchanges, enrollment deadlines and the need for basic documents related to income and eligibility.
Even the language on the websites can be difficult to understand, especially for non-English speakers but also for anyone unfamiliar with medical and insurance jargon.
But Thuranira said cost remains the greatest obstacle. Several times, she said, she’s sat down with clients for hours, searching for affordable plans and plugging their family and financial information into the system, only to find the available plans were too expensive.
“It’s just a letdown,” she said. “Because you’re thinking you’ll finally have coverage to cover your health-related needs and, suddenly, you’re hit with another barrier.”
Bender knows those barriers well. Though she’s been insured since her miscarriage 10 years ago and now lives in Cheviot, her experience without insurance is an asset in her new job as a community health care worker in Cincinnati.
She now spends her days helping poor and uninsured people get the coverage they need.
“I love helping people,” she said.
Most of those people aren’t so different from her. She knows what it’s like to put groceries ahead of insurance premiums in the family budget, and she knows how it feels to live with illnesses she can’t afford to treat.
She also knows, maybe better than some of her clients, that going without insurance carries personal and financial costs that can linger for years.
Because even though she has insurance now, the old bills keep coming.
