by Gwendolyn F.
The Family Affordability Glitch has negatively affected my family. My husband’s employer pays for most of his health insurance premium, which makes his own insurance very affordable. However, his employer is not able to offer help with premiums for myself or for our two children.
I currently have my own private insurance, and my children are insured through a short-term health insurance company until open enrollment begins in November. We are barely able to afford what we have now, and if we don’t get financial assistance during open enrollment, we will not be able to afford insurance for our children. Until this year, we qualified for CHP+ for our children, so they have never had to go without insurance before.
Due to the low premiums my husband pays for his insurance, the rest of us are not eligible for tax credits to help us pay for our insurance. This means that the cost to insure my two young children and myself will be anywhere from $600/month to $950/month. There is no way we can afford that, so we will be faced with either buying groceries, or paying for health insurance. There is a good chance we will also have to go without other necessities as well, such as heat and/or electricity.
It is not fair to create this hardship for my family just because my husband gets help with his premiums from his employer. I am glad he is insured this way, but he is also the one in our family who goes to the doctor the least.
I just hope and pray that this problem is fixed as soon as possible. I really don’t want my children to have to go without insurance. My children deserve to have all of their medical needs met, just like every other child.