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Taking Care of My Family

By Lauren R

As I write this, I’m sitting next to my husband, who is working his way through pneumonia. He started feeling bad about a week ago. One visit to urgent care and a trip to the emergency room revealed he has a bad case of pneumonia. It’s only the second month of the year, and we’ve already hit our insurance deductible. When we add on an upcoming surgery my son has to have next month, we’ll be well beyond our out-of-pocket maximum for the year. My family has some difficult medical issues that cause us to routinely meet these limits. For some, they may never even reach their deductible. However, it’s important to know all of the details of the insurance plan for your own family. It’s also important to understand some of the basic health insurance terms, which you can learn more about at healthcare.gov/sbc-glossary/.

Because of some of the aforementioned medical obstacles, we are routinely seen by various specialists. While we do still have a copay, deductible, or some other additional amount that we are responsible for, the amount of money that we’ve saved by having health insurance is almost immeasurable. What I definitely cannot measure is the amount of stress, anxiety, and online research that I would have had to do if I didn’t have insurance for my family. We know that when there is a health emergency in my family (of which there have been many), we do not need to hesitate to get immediate care. Even though it often still costs us something, especially if we haven’t reached our out-of-pocket maximum for the year, it will cost us far less with insurance than without.

It’s not always in times of crisis that I stop and take a moment to be grateful for insurance. With the number of medications my family takes, we could open a small pharmacy. Often, these medicines can cost hundreds of dollars or more without insurance. Inhalers, antibiotics, steroids, all of these things that give my children a better, more comfortable life, can sometimes cost so much that many people without insurance have to forego filling them. Because we have insurance, we are able to get the right medicines for my sons when they need them.

Insurance can be a tricky thing to understand, with a lot of different definitions and worst-case/best-case scenarios. But I encourage everyone to do their due diligence when looking at what their insurance plans cover. If you are a Colorado Access member and have questions about your coverage, we have a wonderful team that can help walk you through all of your questions. If you need help finding a provider who accepts Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) or Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+), we can help with that too! You can call us at 800-511-5010. We’re here to help you understand your benefits and provide health care at a price we can all afford.