My first introduction to Steve Hatch came from a phone call I received at Democratic HQ. Steve called to see if he and his wife Katie could make a in-kind donation to the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Steve wanted to attend the Obama event that was held last month because of his belief that Barack Obama is the best presidential candidate when it comes to health care issues.
Having dealt with several Democratic presidentail campaigns I wasn't overly optmistic that his offer would be accepted, but what we discovered together was that the Obama campaign was not only willing to accept Steve and Katie's chocolate donation, but that Steve and Katie would also be attending the event.
After the event I asked Steve if he would tell his healthcare story and I am very grateful to Steve for doing so here, on The Utah Amicus.
My next post will include photos of the Obama event in Utah.
Enjoy!
By Steve Hatch
My name is Steve Hatch. I was born in 1970 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I was born with a condition called pseudoachondroplaysia -- a common form of dwarfism.
To be honest, my being a Little Person has never really been an issue. I grew up pretty much like everyone around me in American Fork, Utah. It is only recently that I have become aware of the fact that I am ‘different’, and it is a difference I share with hundreds of thousands of people in this country – big and not so big. I cannot get decent health care coverage in our nation’s health care system.
When I turned 25 and was no longer covered by our family’s medical insurance,
I learned no insurance carrier would individually insure me because I was a dwarf. No amount of money or discussion would shift any health carrier providers’ position.
Some years passed and I met Katie who also was born with a type of dwarfism. After a lengthy but delightful courtship, I finally persuaded Katie to leave her family’s restaurant business in Chicago and move to Salt Lake City. Together, we opened a “handmade” chocolate shop located in the heart of Salt Lake’s Avenues. At the time, I was also working full time at Marriott in their customer service department with full benefits, including health care. Fortunately, we were welcomed into the community, people loved our chocolates, and our business grew very quickly. Because of our success, our business needed me full time, and I had to make a choice – build my business or stay with Marriott. I chose my business, but, with this choice, I sacrificed my health care coverage.
Because the shop now had two employees, Katie and me, we qualified for group coverage and group rates. However, our health insurance did not come cheap. Each month we spent over $500 per person for a basic health plan. As we worked together on our business, Katie and I realized that we loved each other and wanted to get married. One of the less romantic aspects of this decision was a conversation with our health insurance broker to learn how this decision would impact our group health plan. We were told no change in our plan or premiums would occur. Very happily we married.
A year into our honeymoon our insurance coverage came up for renewal. Apparently the story had changed and we were informed that, because Katie and I married, our small business could no longer be classified as a group and could not receive group health insurance coverage, unless we took on the expense of another insured employee. Luckily, we were able to find a provider who agreed to recognize our business as a group – but at a significant increase in cost.
Right now our business – and our family – pays more than $650 every month for basic health coverage, and it’s going up. Last year they tried to increase our premiums by over 20%, but we fought back and they reduced it to (only!) 10%, for this year. If this rate of increase continues, it will not be long before our business will no longer by able to afford basic health care coverage.
The despair of knowing that eventually we will be without health insurance is a depressing contrast to the joy of having our very own successful chocolate shop in the Avenues.
After starting the store in 2003, Katie and I now have hundreds of regular customers who enjoy our quality hand made chocolates and our neighborly chats. Many have become our friends and have told us that our shop has added something unique to our neighborhood.
The irony is we would be better off medically if we were to immediately claim disability, close our shop and go on Medicaid. This is, to put it in chocolate terms, a Nut Cluster. I’m not sure what the future brings, but I do know without a change to our health care system Katie and I, as well as thousands of other Utahns, will find themselves without health insurance. The question is not who are the uninsured, but when will YOU become un-insurable? Great health can change instantly. Perhaps your next routine check-up at your family doctor will reveal an unknown illness, maybe on your drive to work as you are broad-sided in an automobile accident. Today, there are hundreds of thousands without basic health insurance. Tomorrow you may belong in that statistic. The time to change is now to ensure that every American has the right for full health insurance coverage.
Having dealt with several Democratic presidentail campaigns I wasn't overly optmistic that his offer would be accepted, but what we discovered together was that the Obama campaign was not only willing to accept Steve and Katie's chocolate donation, but that Steve and Katie would also be attending the event.
After the event I asked Steve if he would tell his healthcare story and I am very grateful to Steve for doing so here, on The Utah Amicus.
My next post will include photos of the Obama event in Utah.
Enjoy!
By Steve Hatch
My name is Steve Hatch. I was born in 1970 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I was born with a condition called pseudoachondroplaysia -- a common form of dwarfism.
To be honest, my being a Little Person has never really been an issue. I grew up pretty much like everyone around me in American Fork, Utah. It is only recently that I have become aware of the fact that I am ‘different’, and it is a difference I share with hundreds of thousands of people in this country – big and not so big. I cannot get decent health care coverage in our nation’s health care system.
When I turned 25 and was no longer covered by our family’s medical insurance,
I learned no insurance carrier would individually insure me because I was a dwarf. No amount of money or discussion would shift any health carrier providers’ position.
Some years passed and I met Katie who also was born with a type of dwarfism. After a lengthy but delightful courtship, I finally persuaded Katie to leave her family’s restaurant business in Chicago and move to Salt Lake City. Together, we opened a “handmade” chocolate shop located in the heart of Salt Lake’s Avenues. At the time, I was also working full time at Marriott in their customer service department with full benefits, including health care. Fortunately, we were welcomed into the community, people loved our chocolates, and our business grew very quickly. Because of our success, our business needed me full time, and I had to make a choice – build my business or stay with Marriott. I chose my business, but, with this choice, I sacrificed my health care coverage.
Because the shop now had two employees, Katie and me, we qualified for group coverage and group rates. However, our health insurance did not come cheap. Each month we spent over $500 per person for a basic health plan. As we worked together on our business, Katie and I realized that we loved each other and wanted to get married. One of the less romantic aspects of this decision was a conversation with our health insurance broker to learn how this decision would impact our group health plan. We were told no change in our plan or premiums would occur. Very happily we married.
A year into our honeymoon our insurance coverage came up for renewal. Apparently the story had changed and we were informed that, because Katie and I married, our small business could no longer be classified as a group and could not receive group health insurance coverage, unless we took on the expense of another insured employee. Luckily, we were able to find a provider who agreed to recognize our business as a group – but at a significant increase in cost.
Right now our business – and our family – pays more than $650 every month for basic health coverage, and it’s going up. Last year they tried to increase our premiums by over 20%, but we fought back and they reduced it to (only!) 10%, for this year. If this rate of increase continues, it will not be long before our business will no longer by able to afford basic health care coverage.
The despair of knowing that eventually we will be without health insurance is a depressing contrast to the joy of having our very own successful chocolate shop in the Avenues.
After starting the store in 2003, Katie and I now have hundreds of regular customers who enjoy our quality hand made chocolates and our neighborly chats. Many have become our friends and have told us that our shop has added something unique to our neighborhood.
The irony is we would be better off medically if we were to immediately claim disability, close our shop and go on Medicaid. This is, to put it in chocolate terms, a Nut Cluster. I’m not sure what the future brings, but I do know without a change to our health care system Katie and I, as well as thousands of other Utahns, will find themselves without health insurance. The question is not who are the uninsured, but when will YOU become un-insurable? Great health can change instantly. Perhaps your next routine check-up at your family doctor will reveal an unknown illness, maybe on your drive to work as you are broad-sided in an automobile accident. Today, there are hundreds of thousands without basic health insurance. Tomorrow you may belong in that statistic. The time to change is now to ensure that every American has the right for full health insurance coverage.
Stephen Hatch
Hatch Family Chocolates, LLC
390 East 4th Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84103
15 comments:
Next to the family, the free market is the bedrock that holds American society together.
The U.S. healthcare system is healthy, it continues to profit and innovate. The amount of medical research that this country produces in contrast to the rest of the world speaks for itself…and these positive economic gains spill over into other industries such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare suppliers which have record profits which benefit the middle class by increases profits in the stock market and individuals 401K plans. These record profits also lead to employment, the record employment figures in healthcare and pharmaceuticals speak for themselves
The salaries of physicians and nurses and others employed in the healthcare speak volumes to the positive wage cycles that exist in the industry.
The healthcare market is fine. – Leave free enterprise alone.
If you want socialized healthcare ….move to Canada and wait 9 months to see a foreign doctor (Canadian dr’s are leaving Canada in droves for US salaries; just look at the number of Canadian physicians and nurses employed by the U healthcare system and IHC).
Democracy is the bedrock of America. The "free market" is just an example of our many freedoms.
They should look at buying a high-deductible health plan with an HSA. It will likely reduce their premiums quite a bit.
If you have money, yeah, the healthcare system is fine. Those who preach against the so called "solicialized" healthcare have no idea what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck. And somehow, they believe it is ok for a family to go into bankruptcy to pay for medical bills.
It's not ok!
Anon thinks the healthcare system we have now is working. Anon, what planet are you living on?
Free enterprise is great for alot of businesses, but for healthcare, it's not working and something has to be done.
And if our Republican legislators and congressmen are against helping those who need healthcare, then they should give up their government paid healthcare.
Also, the whole idea that we will become a socialistic nation if government fixes the healthcare crisis is pure nonsense.
By the way, why is it that China has "free enterprise" and their government is ruled by Communists? They have a free market, but the people are not free.
Craig makes a great point: HSA + high-deductible policy = lots of savings. I'd much rather have that arrangement than traditional health insurance.
Richard: Some of us who oppose full-on socialization of health care actually have lived paycheck to paycheck (and yes, without insurance). That's rather presumptuous of you. It's also a bit out there to ask legislators to give up an employment benefit if they don't support socialized medicine.
The biggest problem with medicine is that we don't have a free market system. We're handing big pharma government-granted monopolies on medicines on a daily basis through our horribly broken patent system. Big medicine keeps the price of becoming a health care professional artificially high through the abuse of the licensing system and requiring every doctor to be a Mercedes instead of also allowing for the occasional lowly Chevy. The amount of market manipulation on the part of these highly profitable entities is why medicine costs so dang much.
They'd love nothing more than for us to get behind a socialized medical care system that gives them even more government subsidies and an even more ironclad way to manipulate the market. Don't fall for their ploy. Go after the causes of expensive medical care instead.
Jesse,
It is interesting that you are calling me presumptuous when you are doing the same with doctors. Yes, there are some doctors who will abuse government health care, but most doctors do care and have given free care or reduced care to those who can not afford it.
I disagree with your opinion about legislators. I see it as hypocritical when they are against helping people, but find it acceptable to use govt. paid healthcare.
Part of the problem with the "free market" is that we have let insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies go unchecked.
Government can serve the people well when kept in check. But, no government will problems that will lead to chaos.
Richard: I never claimed that doctors are abusing the health care system. I claimed that the large companies dominating the system are doing so.
Here's a different look at what is threatening small business and families.
There's got to be a middle-of-the-road solution that includes a lot less government involvement if we want anyone to be able to afford health care in the long run.
I’ve recently moved to Canada having spent the past few years in the USA I had forgotten just what the medical experience was like.
I was raised in Alberta, and back in the day when I was a young person, we had excellent health care compared to many countries, but then…the budget was slashed, and slashed and slashed…..so now days…it’s not all it’s chalked up to be.
I watched as my friends elderly parent/grandparent slowly lost hrs of support and in home care services, their much needed oxygen, and many of their prescription drugs.
My own grandfather went thru some of that when he lived with me…it was horrible.
We lost many or most of our world renowned surgeons and specialists, and many many good nurses to the USA because they were not getting the money or the hours they needed here any longer.
Also, having spoken with Dr’s and Nurses as well as physical theoropists that had relocated to the States, they all pretty much said the same thing.
The Canadian healthcare system does not allow for advancement in the area of medicine, in many cases the machinery is outdated so bad, and in the case of the physical theropist, she said when she went up to visit with the people she worked with 15 years before in Toronto, they were still doing things the same way they were then, and not advancing in any direction, while she had been given more education, and kept up to date on the new technics, new equiptment etc etc in the states…and it goes on and on.
Anyhow…this all came up as I had to visit a Dr Yesterday as I needed a perscription for Albuteral (rescue inhaler) for my asthma. I’ve been lazy and not applied for the health care yet, so I had to pay for the visit…58.00 to be exact. Well the price was amazing to me as the most I’d ever paid for a Dr Visit was around 35.00 without insurance in the states.
Well, the Dr came in…a women in her 60’s I’m sure (which is fine), and she sat down, asked what I wanted…I told her I was needing some albuteral for my asthma, and she eyed me like I perhaps was a criminal…LOL…looking for an adrenalin rush to pass the time.
Then she decided I was ok when I told her I only had to use it once or twice a week…and wrote out the perscription…in less then 5 min…no health questions, no health history taken, no concerns or suggestions around my asthma which can be fatal, a very serious ailment really.
OK…so I let that go, but had told her that for 58.00 I was going to ask her some other questions…and when she got up to go to the door…less then 5 minutes after she entered…I stopped her and proceeded to ask her about birth control alternatives…that had nothing to do with latex as I’m allergic…she was annoied.
You know it was almost to the point of her screaming out…why do you even need this…you are middle aged…this should not be a concern…(I guess we aren’t supposed to be having sex after 40?!)
Anyway…she started telling me no to the alternatives, and then walked out with me trailing while she went thru a list of contriceptive devices that were all latex based…in front of the waiting patients!!!
So for 58.00 in Canada…at a walk in clinic…I received approximatly 7 min time of a Dr. who in my opinion didn’t do her job…and got what I went in to get…still I was discusted.
The Pharmasist at the Shoppers Drug mart gave me a once over though…spent almost 10 min questioning me on why I was not using certain asthma medications for prevention, and making darn sure I knew how to use the Albuteral…and I only bought a 22.oo item from him…amazing.
In the USA on the other hand…with no insurance, I never spent less then 15 min with a Dr as he/she made sure they understood my history, and asked probing questions and administered appropriate tests for any ail ment I’d have…and it was cheaper too…sheesh.
Now saying all of that…the USA Healthcare system need some radical changes made to it…but my hope is that once that happens…the Dr’s will remain caring concerned individuals and not end up being lumps that hand out perscriptions with out a health history.
Anyhow…I can go on, but it’s late so I won’t.
I'd say the previous person's experience was based more on poor choice of physicians/clinics than an indicative example of Canada's health care system.
I live in the US now (temporarily, thankfully) but have spent most of my life in Canada, and let me tell you, in my 45 years of age, I have never experienced anything as disgusting as the US health care system.
You guys are waaaaaay behind the times. I am blessed both in health and in wealth, but that doesn't mean it excites me to pay so much for what little medical attention I do need. A simply accident here costs THOUSANDS if you're uninsured and end up at the emergency room. A car accident can devastate a life. Business are crushed under expensive policy premiums for their owners and employers, and the US economy is choked by the cost of living hike instantly implied by your pre-historic medical health system.
It amazes me that someone could read the story in this post, and still say that this system in the US works. It is clearly a failed system.
A lot can be said for capitalism and the free market, but there is not much to say for being to stubborn to admit a failure when you smell it.
In the end, we need to realize that healthcare, like voting, is not a right for americans.
Why, in the name of God, would we need to realize that?
What a stupid thing to say. Bet you call yourself a Christian too.
What do you mean by that comment..it makes no sense what so ever.
What I like about small business owners is that they are not afraid to take huge risks and lay it all on the line. But, I agree they do need a lot of help with their marketing. I think having them go the social media and email route is not only the least expensive but its also the most effective. Thanks for the stats!
With Facebook and Twitter being among the leaders of the Social networks, marketing as a small business is being transformed..
Respondents according to the Vertical Response survey appear to need some differentiation with the use of SE marketing and Social media Marketing
www.onlineuniversalwork.com
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