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Small Business, Big Health Bills |
| Tue March 27th, 2007 |
New Haven Independent
Ricardo Henriquez, a one-time journalist in Chile, now works in Connecticut with other immigrants as an organizer in a statewide universal health-care campaign. He hasn't lost his reporting touch; following are some stories he wrote about the merchants he meets on Grand Avenue in New Haven's Grand Avenue.
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Cecilia Solano
Cecilia Solano has lived in the United States for 22 years and, although her two children were born in this country and possibly will form their own families here, she has decided to return to Mexico before she gets old.
Although she has lived in this country for decades, she has decided to abandon the place she worked so hard to start a new life. It is the lack of health coverage that will force her to return, the impossibility to pay for insurance and the discrimination that she, and thousands in Connecticut confront when trying to pay for health services in cash.
"Unfortunately in this country when you have a business, no matter how small, the government thinks you are millionaire, so you don't qualify for any kind of help. Hardworking people like me don't have $1,500 to pay monthly for insurance," the owner of Cecís Bakery, in the heart of Grand Avenue.
Some years ago, when Cecilia started suffering from serious health problems, she had no option but to travel to her native town in Mexico, where she had an emergency hysterectomy and got more than two liters of blood in a transfusion.
Since then, every six months she must return to Puebla, where her treatments cost much less than 18 thousands dollars, which is what she would pay in the States if she wanted to get health insurance, and that is not including deductibles and co-payments.
"In Mexico the doctor asked me, "Why did you wait so long to come? Your disease has advanced so drastically that you could have cervical cancer. Luckily, I did not." says Solano.
And she is only one of the many horror stories that Connecticut families live because of an ineffective and discriminatory health system.
That's why Cecilia Solano wants to go back to Mexico, because to age in the United States without the necessary cover sounds crazy.
"My husband and I are going to wait until the children finish school, and become good citizens, then we are going to sell everything and return to Mexico, because everything we have here would be spent on health care bills if we stay," Solano laments.
Grangel Hernandez
Grangel Hernandez arrived in the United States like many others seeking the American dream. A better job, more money, better life conditions in order to eventually start a family. And although things are much better here than in Mexico, he is still missing a key element in his dream: access to an affordable health care system.
These days Grangel takes advantage of his youth and his good health, but lives in fear. He knows that some day his health will fail him and then he'll have to face a medical crisis without any resources or assistance.
"If I had enough money to pay for health insurance I would, but it is not possible. So I rely on home made remedies, or wait until I'm really sick and then go to the emergency room," explained this small business owner of Fair Haven.
And he is not the only one relying on this solution when it comes to health care. Almost all of his friends, family members and other business owners think twice before seeking professional help to treat their illnesses.
In his store he works with two other employees, and of course nobody has any kind of insurance, not to mention a back-up plan in case of a serious disease or accident. Everyone hopes nothing bad is going to happen until the legislators decide to overhaul the system.
"It would be really good if something happened, if the authorities made some changes. We can't keep living the way we are right now, even when you go to a clinic you get asked if you have health insurance, and the wait is always long", Grangel complains.
He thinks that deep down the reasons for this whole crisis is racism. The state does not do anything to change the system because the most affected people are Latinos and African-Americans. "If they - the authorities -- don't do anything to stop criminals in our neighborhoods, why would they do something to improve our access to health care," insists Grangel.
Martha Sanchez
Martha Sanchez has learned the hard way that even with money it is not always possible to receive medical attention. In addition to the burden of having to save money every month to cover the costs of medical procedures, Martha must also deal with the distrust of hospitals towards people like her who don't have health insurance.
"I was going to take care of some varicose veins but at the hospital they told me that without insurance, they were afraid I was not going to be able to pay them. So they asked me for a money order or something else to prove I could pay, but even then they told me they were not 100 percent sure they would take care of me," she explained.
And this is only one of the dramas Martha lives daily. She has three kids, they are 15, 10 and 5, and not having health insurance for them is like playing Russian roulette. She fears that one of them will fall ill one day and she will not have any means of covering the high cost medical attention.
Her own health and her husband's are not her first priority right now. As with other thousand of mothers in Connecticut, her children come first and nothing else really matters.
Sanchez has tried to change this situation, but all her efforts seem to find only dead ends. She tried to apply to HUSKY [the state program for working and low-income families] but was rejected for being a business owner. She tried to get health insurance through a broker, but the prices were outrageous for a family the size of hers.
"I would be happy even with a really cheap health insurance. But not even that I can afford. I don't want anything free, but I do need help to pay for health insurance, that is the only way this is going to work. I live in fear thinking that one of my kids is going to get into an accident and I'm not going to be able to take care of them," she said.
Adalberto Rodriguez
When Adalberto Rodriguez found out that his mother needed heart surgery, his peaceful life was over. Without health insurance and aware of the high cost of this kind of surgery, this business owner had to make a drastic decision.
"I would've liked her to have gotten the surgery here in the States. There is better technology and better machinery here, but it is too expensive. I would have to win the lottery to be able to afford that here. So I had to send my mother to Santo Domingo, where a doctor friend of the family took care of her," said the small business owner from Grand Avenue.
On top of all the worries a surgery brings, Adalberto had to add not being able to go with his mother to the Dominican Republic for this procedure. He is the only child and, besides, the only employee of his business so traveling with her was not among his possibilities.
Since then he has being paying for health insurance for his mother, but in the Dominican Republic, where the cost for full coverage is less than a quarter of what it is here.
He, on the other hand, has no possibilities of getting health insurance, neither here nor anywhere else. As owner and only employee of his business he can't close shop for a long time and go to another country to get medical treatment, and the cost of medical insurance here is simply out of his reach.
"If there was a better system I would get health insurance. But it is too much money, one has to be rich to pay for it. And as a business owner I can't get any help from the state," complains Adalberto.
Anyone interested in sharing their story or signing the petition for Universal Health Care can contact Ricardo Henriquez at (203) 777 GAVA (4282) or by email.
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