Thirteen years ago I was a waitress making barely enough money to get by when I got pregnant unexpectedly.
At the time, I was twenty-two years old and hadn’t had health insurance for years, because this was long before the Affordable Care Act made it so that kids could stay on their parent’s health insurance plans until the age of 26.
One of the first things I did when I found out I was pregnant was be referred to Connecticut’s State insurance plan, Husky, for low-income residents.
Ever since then, for the last thirteen years that I’ve been poor and stayed poor, I’ve been on free state insurance and my health has suffered for it.
There is one great benefit to being on my state insurance plan: it’s completely free.
Because I fall into the lowest income bracket, I don’t have any co-pays for doctors visits or medications, and I have never once seen a bill for any of my or my daughter’s health care.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good part ends.
