Kathleen Cain, Windham, New Hampshire

Health Care Voter Story: Kathleen Cain, Windham "My brother suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, the treatment of which involves a variety of prescription medications, frequent physician visits, and occasional invasive procedures—all of which are exceedingly expensive.  Jim works in a restaurant that requires service personnel to average a minimum number of hours per week in order to qualify for health care benefits.  If an employee fails to maintain the required number of hours in a given quarter, benefits are suspended until the next open enrollment period, which could be as much as a year away.  Even those who maintain benefits pay high premiums and co-pays.  Since the cost of health care is skyrocketing, it is in the best interest of the restaurant chain to attempt to keep the number of eligible employees at a minimum.  At the same time, illness that prevents an employee from maintaining the minimum number of hours already jeopardizes coverage.  Thus, employees who rely on coverage from the chain are constantly struggling to keep their medical coverage, while the employer is constantly attempting to eliminate employees from eligibility."

Health Care Voter Story:

Kathleen Cain, Windham, New Hampshire

Health Care Voter Story: Kathleen Cain, Windham "My brother suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, the treatment of which involves a variety of prescription medications, frequent physician visits, and occasional invasive procedures—all of which are exceedingly expensive.  Jim works in a restaurant that requires service personnel to average a minimum number of hours per week in order to qualify for health care benefits.  If an employee fails to maintain the required number of hours in a given quarter, benefits are suspended until the next open enrollment period, which could be as much as a year away.  Even those who maintain benefits pay high premiums and co-pays.  Since the cost of health care is skyrocketing, it is in the best interest of the restaurant chain to attempt to keep the number of eligible employees at a minimum.  At the same time, illness that prevents an employee from maintaining the minimum number of hours already jeopardizes coverage.  Thus, employees who rely on coverage from the chain are constantly struggling to keep their medical coverage, while the employer is constantly attempting to eliminate employees from eligibility."

Sharon has had MS, an immunity disease, since she was 17. In the years before the plant she worked at in her teens and early 20’s closed, she was frequently dropped and picked back up from her employer’s insurance plan. To add to her MS, Sharon now has fibromyalgia and severe asthma. Her chronic diseases and medical procedures kept her from college for nearly 20 years. From 1980 to 1990 alone she received 15 surgeries. In more recent years Sharon has been doing much better. Due to more recent status as a full-time student she’s been eligible for subsidized insurance. This coverage has given her access to a new drug called Sol-Medrol that treats her MS and allows her to live a semi-normal life.

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