How much should a family pay for healthcare, and what should they do if they can’t pay the bill? It is a legitimate question that is not easily answered. The case of Maria and Jake Grey of Sanger, Texas, and their daughter Brighton is particularly troubling and adds yet another layer to our national healthcare dilemma. Where Will Healthcare Go from Here?
Brighton was born with a genetic disorder. Her situation is not hopeless. Though she has the mental capacity of a baby (she is six now), with medication and treatments she can somewhat improve. That is good news. The bad news follows.
The Divorce Option
Jake Grey makes about $40,000 a year. It’s tough to even for a family of four to live on that (they have a younger daughter who is normal) however, the Grey’s spend $15,000 a year out of pocket for Brighton’s care.
They have worked all of the angles they know how to work, but at the end of the day, the family spends about 30 percent of their income on their child. Said Maria Grey:
“I used to get anxiety just opening the mail because I was scared of what would come or what bill would come or what denial would come.”
To add in a “wrinkle,” Jake Grey is an Army veteran. He makes barely over the low-income requirement to qualify for Medicaid.
Texas does have state assistance available, however, there is an enormous waiting list. On one list, “Brighton’s” number is 59,979, which is virtual “infinity” in her case.
The Greys, Jake, and Maria love each other, but that’s not the point anymore. They are strongly considering a divorce. In this way, Maria could become a single, jobless mother of two and qualify for Medicaid.
Said Jake, “We’ve just struggled and struggled with it, and now we’ve gotten to the point, where we feel it’s a real possibility…For someone to kind of make you choose between your marriage and your child is just—it’s just a really weird spot to be in,” Jake said.
The Conundrum
As I read the articles about the Grey family, in piece after piece, experts were trotted out to talk about how unfair all of it was. One expert said this was an extreme situation, that a family such as this would have about a $600 per year premium. It is of little help to the Grey family.
Aside from community bake sales, GoFundMe pages or gifts from friends and relatives it is somewhat difficult to think of a viable alternative. There is in this the heart of the ethical conundrum: a faulty healthcare system may dictate a family’s marital status by creating a payment obstacle that is impossible to breach.
The fact that it is an Army veteran should be bothersome. Shouldn’t we be treating our veterans and their families better? However, I know all too well from friends who have served that they can’t even get reasonable care for themselves after discharge, let alone work a non-existent channel to care for their child.
An Inconvenient Truth
The Grey’s are a microcosm and we can learn from them and see ourselves in a societal mirror. What is happening to Grey’s happens throughout disadvantaged communities across America.
The intention of this blog is to not bring the subjects of race, poverty or failed government programs such as healthcare into yet another examination. However, what could be happening to Grey’s has happened to whole generations of families. It is a societal breakdown exacerbated by failed healthcare.
I fear this is not a discussion that politicians will ever be able to fix. I am skeptical that a Congress, with free healthcare for themselves and their families, can ever understand the plight of middle-class families. Perhaps one solution is to rescind their free healthcare until they figure it out.
Ultimately, this is an ethical conversation that needs to happen between state legislatures and the insurance companies who are leaving millions of people with few alternatives. If rates continue to rise, and politicians continue to play, where will healthcare go from here?
