The sweetest Obamacare story you’ll hear this week

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Griffin was down in the basement in his “boy cave.” Harper was doing an art project on the kitchen table. Annie was preparing dinner. And I was shopping for Obamacare on healthcare.gov. My appetite a bit less as I scrolled down past ever-rising premiums and deductibles trying to find a plan that worked for us.

We are thankful for Obamacare and the fact we can’t be turned away for my son having a “preexisting condition” of autism. No private insurance company would insure us otherwise.

Basically, we pay the insurance company $10 and they pay $100 of our expenses. Of course, we pay a lot more than $10 each month to have insurance. Our premiums and our deductibles (which we reach by February) have jumped up each year. We can’t afford not to have insurance. Yet the cost of insurance is becoming more unaffordable.

I broke the news to Annie how much our premium was going to go up, and we talked about the proposed plan. During all of this, our daughter Harper, 7, slipped away upstairs.

When Harper came back down, she handed me her wooden piggy bank.

“You can have it all, daddy.”

Sometimes I need a reminder why I adult in the first place. That was a good one. I gave Harper a hug, thanked her, and told her that fortunately, at least for now, we could cover the cost.  

And to bring back an old meme: Health insurance premium = $800. Deductible = $13,000. Having a daughter that will give you all the money in her piggy bank = priceless.

 
2 comments
Cathy Hutchcraft says:

She’s a keeper!

Kelsey says:

She is pretty sweet, thoughtful, and a great big sister. She’s also a pretty good buddy. We’re off to watch Rogue One today!

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