My friend Karl is insured through MassHealth. To qualify, he has to make less than $20,030 a year.
“If I'd made $4,000 more two years ago, I’d be bankrupt today,” Karl explains.
We’re sitting at his table. His dog Leche wags her tail by his feet. Two years earlier, on a long delayed visit to his farm, I was horrified to see Karl struggle to walk. He’d always been healthy.
Yes, he told me, he’d been to doctors. Maybe multiple sclerosis.
As soon as I got home, I read everything I could about MS. It wasn’t good.
A couple weeks later, he called from the emergency room. “They’re sending me to Baystate in an ambulance.”
Doctors found a non-cancerous tumor, pressing on his spinal cord. They operated immediately.
Karl’s a poultry farmer in Easthampton. His long recovery from surgery drained his financial resources. He had to rely on friends and new employees to keep his farm running and his birds alive.
He did not have to deal with overwhelming medical debt.
Healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. In 2022, the average visit to the ER in Massachusetts was around $1,200.
And medical expenses can add up quickly. The average MRI is over $1,300. Karl has needed seven. So far.
Anyone experiencing a medical emergency could suddenly find themselves saddled with thousands in medical bills before they've met their out-of-pocket maximum, while those of us without insurance or without enough insurance may be forced to forgo lifesaving care.
What remains of Karl's tumor after surgery continues to grow. Imaging regularly is necessary.
He shrugs when I ask him what he’ll do if he loses medical coverage. “I won’t get an MRI. I couldn’t.”
MassHealth saved Karl’s life.
He’s walking, farming, playing fetch with Leche. In the U.S., 26 million adults lack insurance. It’s a crisis that so many of us still don’t have the support that Karl wouldn’t have survived without.
Morgan Sheehan is a writer and editor who lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts.
