By Sarah Green and Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, July 9
Zharmaine Key, a 27-year-old single mother whose three daughters, ages 6, 3 and almost 2, are on
HealthWave
, was diagnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumor when her youngest child was a few months old.
HealthWave
which includes both the state”s Medicaid and State Children”s Health Insurance programs
covers pregnant women for 60 days after delivery. Key was diagnosed shortly after delivering the child, but when the coverage lapsed she was still ill and the bills kept coming.
“I”m trying to stay healthy now, but I know that any minute something could go wrong,” said Key, who lives in Topeka. “I”ll go to the doctor when (headaches) get to be unbearable and when I have to, but because I have to pay all the bills, I try to make those appointments stretch.”
She started a full-time clerical job this month, earning $9 per hour. That”s barely enough, she said, to pay rent, car insurance and her grocery bill, let alone the $5,000 in outstanding medical debt she estimates that she owes doctors and hospitals.
Her new job will provide health insurance after she works 90 days. Whether she can afford to take advantage of the benefit remains to be seen.
“If it”s $35 a paycheck, that”s $70 a month,” Key said. “I have to be careful about what I choose. People don”t realize that just because you have access to insurance doesn”t mean it”s affordable. My kids have insurance, and I am 100 percent responsible to my babies. But I need to be here too to make sure they”re taken care of.”
Still, she would want to pay “at least something” for health insurance, if she could afford it.
“I don”t believe in a hand-out, I really believe in getting a hand up,” she said. “I just need a little help to get myself stable.”
On May 7, following heavy rains, her southwest Topeka house was flooded by eight feet of water. She lost most of her belongings. She since has moved to another house and is trying to reassemble her life.
“When it rains, it pours,” she said.
Self medicating
Denise Monroe plays with her son at the Topeka Rescue Mission. Monroe could be one of the 24,000 Kansas parents who could benefit from the state’s premium assistance plan. (Thad Allton/KHI)
Denise Monroe figures she owes a Topeka hospital about $4,000.
“I haven”t seen the bill,” she said. “But I fell off the wagon really hard and I ended up in the emergency room. They put me in the hospital for a day.”
Monroe, 39, admits to being a “recovering alcoholic” who”s also bipolar.
“I self-medicate. Absolutely,” she said.
Monroe said she would welcome a state program that would provider her health insurance.
“I know I need to take better care of myself,” she said. “I haven”t had a checkup for, gosh, years.”
Monroe, who has a 15-month-old son, is among the estimated 24,000 Kansas parents who would be eligible for state-funded health insurance if lawmakers follow through on plans to cover adults living at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level
$1,140 a month for a two-person household.
Eligibility would be limited to parents whose children are on or eligible for Medicaid, the state”s health insurance program for low-income families.
Today, adults who are poor and pregnant, blind, disabled or aged are eligible for Medicaid. Able-bodied adults are eligible only if their incomes fall below 37 percent of the poverty level.
Legislators have directed the
Kansas Health Policy Authority
to put together a “premium assistance” plan for insuring parents whose children are on HealthWave and whose incomes are less than 100 percent of the poverty level. Plans call for phasing in the coverage over four years.
Monroe likely would be eligible. She hasn”t worked since her son was born because she cannot afford day care. She and her son have been living on $326 a month in cash assistance, $228 a month in food stamps, and help from friends.
Monroe was evicted from her Silver Lake apartment late last month. Her hospitalization followed her eviction. She and her son were staying at the Topeka Rescue Mission shelter last week.
“This is the first time I”ve been homeless,” she said. “Now that I”m here, I”m hoping I can get into some treatment, get some vocational training, get a job and get back out on my own.”
Monroe said she doesn”t have family she can turn to for support.
“I”m an Air Force brat,” she said. “My mom left us
my dad and me
when I was two. And my dad and I are estranged. I”m an only child.”
Monroe said she”s lost contact with the father of her son. “When he found out I was pregnant, he took off like a rabbit,” she said. “I have no idea where he is.”
Having health insurance would help Monroe get back on her feet, she said.
The still developing premium assistance program, if it succeeds in securing promised legislative funding would be “a good start,” at helping uninsured Kansans, said Corrie Edwards, executive director for the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition, which represents low-income families and the uninsured.
But two-parent families with both parents working
even at minimum wage
would exceed the 100 percent poverty level and therefore not qualify, she said.
“I”m hoping that we are on the path to do more,” Edwards said. “We can”t just stop at premium assistance. That would be a shame. This is just a good place to start.”
Self employed
Siretta Wilson, 32, lives with her 11-year-old daughter and, since December, cares for her twin 17-year-old brother and sister.
Wilson, a cosmetologist, said she earns between $15,000 and $20,000 a year
below 100 percent poverty
depending on how many customers she has at the Topeka salon where she works.
She”s considered self-employed, and the salon where she works does not offer health insurance. But even if it did, she couldn”t afford the premiums.
“I”d like to not have to pay for doctor”s visits. I”d like to not have it be an emergency for me to go to the doctor,” she said. “I just can”t afford it.”
-Sarah Green and Dave Ranney are staff writers for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. They can be reached at 785-233-5443.