One thing I haven’t seen mentioned in all this, is that “catastrophic coverage” plans with high deductibles are pretty reasonable. We have one on our college-age son, and it’s only $60 a month, and I think it gives $1 million in coverage. Even if they truly couldn’t have afforded conventional coverage (which is certainly questionable), the could have afforded a catastophic coverage plan.
But really, why would they, when they easily qualified for Maryland’s version of SCHIP, without even having to pay the miniscule premium of $57 per month for a family?
The funny thing is it LOOKS LIKE THEY DIDN’T even have THAT SCHIP coverage until after the accident. It was FREE INSURANCE FROM THE GOVERNMENT, which would have paid for well-care visits, vaccines, medicine, the works. If they had spent any time looking for Medical Insurance, they would have found that their kids could all get free coverage.
I can’t be sure, but the way the articles are written it sure sounds like they went to SCHIP after the accident.
But if you were a democrat, and looking for health insurance, and FREE insurance from the government popped up, you would never even THINK about PAYING for coverage elsewhere.
In fact, this is probably why there are so few low-cost options for child health coverage. There’s no market for it, because the government already GIVES IT AWAY.