More than 20 years ago, a young woman I didn't know, and I both went to work for the State of Utah. This young woman, later became my wife. I'll spare you the details, but we both ended up working in different parts of The Department of Corrections, and became Peace Officers. We were promised 50% of our pay and Public Employees Health Plan (PEHP) when we retired after 20 years. We would pay for our insurance by turning in 8 hours a month of unused sick or vacation pay we kept when we retired. A simple plan, and a good retirement package.
Both of us were offered other jobs, making more money, or doing something more exciting than being, Probation/Parole Agents, but we kept the job for the retirement benefits, and the stability. After all, by now, we had a daughter who was Autistic, so we needed those medical benefits.
In 1995, my wife was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, (RP) a degenerative, genetic eye disease, that will, eventually, take all her eyesight. The Department did everything they could to expedite her, Medical Retirement, PEHP fought for her disability with, Social Security, and she had to quit working. But now, she had half her salary, could no longer drive, and we were expecting another child via adoption, who would later join our family.
Deb used to say she wished there was a way she could stay home with the kids. Be careful what you wish for, sometimes in comes true in ways you could not possibly have imagined.
One thing I bet most public employees don't know about, "going on disability" is that you can't do it until you have exhausted ALL of you sick/vacation leave. You have to use it all up before you retire so you have no health insurance, and you are eligible for Medicaid. No problem, we thought. I still will have insurance to cover us both, and started to try to save some more of those personal hours. We were going to get through this, no matter what.
Step in, Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. Who felt that State Government should be run more like a business. Trim the fat, privatize, etc. One of his first moves was to get State Legislator, Chad Bennion (R, Murray) (who those of us who live in Murray tossed out of his job at the next election!) to sponsor HB 213. This bill took away Public Employees retirement health care from PEHP, and didn't let them use saved hours to pay for it. It took away the five years of PEHP that had been given to all retiree's before they had to start using their saved hours, if you retired after December of 2006. Very, "Business" like, no? But not very kind to people who had been counting on that insurance, or maybe kept a job they didn't really like, because they knew they would NEED that retirement insurance.
Oh, there was, one, tiny loop hole left open by HB 213. If you serve in the State Legislature, or you are a Judge? YOU get lifetime PEHP. I believe you only have to have served in either of those jobs for 6 years to get that lifetime benefit.
Six years of doing your best to keep the evil cable company's at bay, trying to stop abortions that are Constitutionally protected, censoring history in school books and bringing the hate to Gay people, and the concealed weapons to the University of Utah, and YOU get lifetime insurance. Well, You ARE doing, God's work, right?
But, spend 20 years working in the state's Prisons, on it's highways, and in it's methlab's (doctor, I have this cough?) and what do you get? Nothing, Nada, zip, good luck with that, thanks for your service, and don't let the door hit you on the way out, I have two guys from my Ward and a nephew who wants your job.
My wife's five years is up. I have a year and a half left, and then, no one, and I mean NO ONE, will insure my 21 year old, Autistic daughter who takes several hundred dollars of medications a month to control her anxiety and other problems. No one is going to give a supplemental insurance policy to a blind woman with some other pre-existing conditions.
I'm a little over weight, but I don't even take any prescription drugs, and short of a back surgery last year, I'm doing OK. I could get a policy for me and my son, but here's where it gets weird.
My father died a few years ago, and left me some money. Enough money that I can take, "The Blind Lady" to see the world and still live normally. But it puts me at a disadvantage. If anything bad happens to my uninsured daughter, she's 21, no one can sue, ME. But of course, I won't abandon her. But to protect myself if something happens to my under insured wife, a serious car accident, she needs a transplant, etc. Someone can still sue me, as her husband, because I have money.
Now, in this family values state, the only way to protect my self and my son is divorce my wife of 25 years, cut all ties to my adult daughter, and buy insurance for my son and I and hope for the best?
Well, not so fast. The Federal Government wants to offer a National Health Insurance, a, "Government Option" for those who can't get insurance from their employers. And for those who are otherwise insurable! Awesome! I'm off the hook. If my daughter gets hurt, or my wife has an accident, I don't have to lose everything to IHC, or what ever hospital treats them. This is great news. I can't wait.
But then, I'm watching the news last night, and I see, Governor Gary Herbert (R, Kolob) telling me that my state might, "opt-out" of any Federal Insurance Program. WTF? Why? What is to be GAINED from NOT taking the Federal help to insure that all, Utahan's have access to health care?
Well, it's a Socialist plot, for one thing. Oh, and the Democrats voted for it. And a BLACK guy came up with the idea!
Nah, couldn't be that.
How about that fact that Intermountain Healthcare, a non-profit organization, by the way, controls about 60% if the hospitals/doctors and INSURANCE in this state. And those guys are tight with the, "R's". And if the, "R's" stand for anything, it's the invisible hand of the free market (unless your bank/insurance agency/or investment house is failing. If that's the case, "We need to BAIL now, and BAIL here!" Or you want to make a living selling dirty movies. They want to legislate that away, unless your, "porno house" is a, Marriott Hotel).
So, here I sit. I can't get insurance for two members of my family after the, "R's" promised it to me for 20 years and then took it away. Now my Federal Government wants me to keep my money and take care of my family by giving me insurance, but the same, "R's" that took it away a few years ago, are going to make sure I can't have it now, because it would hurt the bottom line of the biggest health care/insurance provider in the State.
Does any one know how you emigrate to Canada. Because I just don't see there being any chance of electing smart politicians in Utah before my insurance runs out in a year and a half.
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I think I'm entitled to health insurance for the rest of my life because when I took the job, with the state, THEY PROMISED IT TO ME! It's one of the reasons I TOOK the job, 20+ years ago, dumbass! Not knowing that 20+ years later the, "R's" would change the contract they signed with me somehow, in your world, makes ME the whiner? Catch a clue. And by the way, I'm white, and yes my life is great. But I'm complaining about something I was promised, and then not given. My wife and I both took the job because of the benefit package. We would have worked for some corporation who MIGHT have lived up to their promises and paid it out, if it hadn't been PROMISED TO US! You don't get it.
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