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My husband and I are watching all of this carefully as it could significantly affect our upcoming decisions this year. He is working on a degree and I've been the one with the full-time teaching job with benefits.  Now I am pregnant with our first child and I don't want to have to work the 60+ hours a week that teaching involves just so we can have health insurance.  My husband has a seasonal job and spends most of his free time looking for a full time job with benefits but it's not easy to find these days for people who don't yet have their BA degree.  At the moment it would cost us about $485 a month to pay for private insurance, which is somewhat steep; but health care is an absolute necessity with a new baby in the home.  

We are very much hoping for a public option that we can buy into so that I don't have to work full time to get the insurance benefit.  We're afraid that without that, there won't be enough incentive for private companies to really lower the rates and premiums for people like us who are not making much money.  We also need pre-existing conditions go bye-bye, and also it would be good to have COBRA extended so I could use that.  But if these things don't go through, it is very likely that I will have to work full time just so we can have the health insurance benefit; as much as I love teaching, I want to focus on my own child.  

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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