Andrew Thompson, Sculptor and Teacher
It’s not easy being a free-lancer in anything, including teaching. Andrew Thompson is a college instructor at four colleges and is a working sculptor. Yet he has very little money left at the end of the month to purchase health coverage. Included in his monthly bills are payments on $60,000 in student loans, which he will need to pay for 28 years. As a result, he works without it, and without disability and life insurance. He thinks about the risk all the time and looks forward to the day when he can earn enough to pay for a basic, catastrophic coverage. In the meantime, he hopes for good health.
Photo: Donna Terek
Rosa Reyna has glaucoma in her right eye. She treats the disease with medicated eye drops that cost $98 per bottle, refilled monthly. She needs to see an eye specialist every six weeks, costing $177 per visit. When she was married, she had insurance. She is no longer married and became uninsured. She lives in Southwest Detroit on her part-time earnings from serving at a restaurant and receives child support for three of her four children a little more than $1,000 a month. With that, she needs to make a house payment and various insurances and pay for medical expenses.
Christine Cardenas is a student at Wayne State University who, like several classmates, is without health insurance. She works at Macys department store, but doesnt earn enough to pay her tuition and living expenses and afford the health policy the store offers its employees. While shes healthy, other uninsured classmates have not been so fortunate. One of her friends endured an abscessed tooth for three weeks before going to a hospital emergency facility because he couldnt find a dentist who would treat him. A socially conscious student, Christine is amazed and appalled that a country such as Trinidad, her fathers homeland, could provide universal coverage for its citizens many of them poor and not the United States. Christine, who hopes to find a job in industrial engineering that will provide health insurance, is president of the Wayne State chapter of Students for Choice, which advocates for the interconnection of reproductive issues and other womens health issues.
Tom Jacobs is a self-employed personal fitness trainer who is in excellent physical condition. However, financial pressures forced him to make choices on his living expenses. Given that he was in physically fit, he took the risk that health insurance was one bill he could do without. However, he developed a heart valve problem that required emergency care. That led to time in a critical care unit, and ultimately heart surgery and several weeks off work for rehabilitation. He was shocked at the bills for his care and has considered bankruptcy as the only way to resolve his debt.