Jake and Maria Grey of Texas got married nine years and have been happily in love ever since. But unfortunately, they are considering divorce.
But it has nothing to do with their relationship.
They actually love each other very much but they’re considering a split in order to be eligible for Medicaid for their oldest child, 6-year-old Brighton who has a rare chromosomal disorder called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome which renders her at the developmental state of a newborn.
“You know, when you have a newborn, everything gets really stressful. You really have to adapt to someone needing you 24/7, all the time,” Maria told WFAA. “We’ve had a newborn for 6-and-a-half years.”
The Greys have private health insurance and spend about $15,000 a year on out of pocket costs.
That’s more than 30 percent of the family’s annual income.
“It’s drowning us to try to keep up with her medical expenses. We’ve done everything we can do to try to keep her afloat, and we’re going to reach a point where we can’t do it and we won’t have another option. We don’t know what to do,” Jake, an Army veteran, told TODAY.
They say getting Medicaid for their child may be the only way that Brighton can get the care she needs.
Right now, Jake makes too much at $40,000 per year for the family to be eligible.
But if they divorce, Maria would be a single unempl0yed mother and would qualify.
“We’ve just struggled and struggled with it, and now we’ve gotten to the point, where we feel it’s a real possibility,” Jake said.
There is state assistance available but the waiting list is incredibly long.
They are number 59,979 on that list and some people have been waiting on the list for up to 14 years.
“We are not looking for charity, we’re not looking for money or donations. We don’t want a GoFundMe — we don’t want any of that,” Maria said. “I need the state to step up and give us the benefits that we need.”
Health care costs and insurance premiums for tax paying Americans are increasing.
And so are profits for insurance companies.
Some health insurances stocks are performing more than 100 times better than the stock market’s major index of the country’s 5o0 largest companies.
“Despite significant initial financial losses in the individual market after the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, health insurer profitability in the individual market has risen due to substantial premium increases, government premium tax credits that pay for those premium increases, and the large, government-funded, Medicaid expansion,” the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers writes in a March 2018 reports to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. “Since ACA implementation on January 1, 2014, health insurance stocks outperformed the S&P 500 by 106 percent.”
Meanwhile amilies like the Greys, who have served our country in the military, continue to suffer and make tough choices in order to survive.
And insurance companies will continue to see profits.
“Stable year-over-year enrollment, despite large premium increases suggests a distorted market that involves large transfers from taxpayers to insurers. Large insurers, many of whom left the individual market, are profiting from the Medicaid expansion, which is largely provided through private managed care and paid for by the federal government. All health insurers can expect to become more profitable this coming year due to the recent tax reform,” the report says.
The Greys said they wanted to share their story to raise awareness about the state of our nation’s health care system and encourage other struggling families to share their stories as well.
Jake says what has happened to his family is morally wrong.
“For someone to kind of make you choose between your marriage and your child is just — it’s just a really weird spot to be in,” he said.
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