I visited the Holyoke home of Virginia Ocampo, a single mother — an immigrant from Colombia — who appears to have fallen through the cracks of health reform. She’s worked for ten years at a hotel in Holyoke as a housecleaner. The hotel offers its employees health insurance, but virtually no one accepts it because the employee contribution is so high. For Virginia, it would be a third of her monthly take-home pay. She used to qualify for Medicaid, and based on her income, she should qualify for Commonwealth Care. However, since her employer is technically offering health insurance, that disqualifies her from the state subsidized program. She is in utter despair — not just because she can’t get any health insurance now (and her older daughter has many health problems), but because she’s going to incur a penalty for NOT having health insurance. She’s having so many other financial problems that her house is in foreclosure, although it seems that’s not directly related to her health insurance problems. (Her husband has been deported — sounds like they are not in contact anymore.)

I decided to walk the fine line between reporter and resource….by giving her the names of some pro bono lawyers who might help her, and I also encouraged her to contact the Connector Authority about the possibility of a penalty waiver. I believe she may be exempt from penalty because she can show that her health insurance is not affordable. But that won’t solve all her problems…..In other reporting, I produced a short news spot about the Massachusetts Medical Society’s study on “defensive medicine.” It’s loosely related to health reform, in that the society claims that fear of lawsuits is causing doctors to order unnecessary tests and hospitalizations….thereby driving up the cost of medicine in the state.