Valerie - Norwich, VT

“Hi, my name is Valerie Woodhouse and I am at Honeyfield Farm in Norwich VT. So right now, me and my family do not have health insurance. In January I left a job that I was working full time as a social worker and received benefits. I actually had the best health insurance that I’ve ever had my whole life, with zero deductible, and pretty reasonable monthly premium for me and my partner. We were farming on the side. He was on a farm in Burlington, and I was working in mental health, and we chose to do that for a lot of reasons, one of them being that we could get benefits while starting our farm and building our business. This year we had the opportunity to purchase a much larger turnkey operation that was across the state and I wouldn’t be able to continue in my job, and, it was, it took months of decision making to decide whether (1) we could make that move and have me lose my job, and the other piece was whether I was going to start working full-time as a social worker in the Upper Valley. And we couldn’t figure out how we could have Eli sort-of single-handedly managing the farm without me unless we were hiring in someone at my management level. And it sort of seemed like the direction we were going in, and even though we were going to be moving to this amazing farm, that I was gonna not be able to take part of it full-force, and have to continue supporting from the sidelines and on my evenings and weekends. But, I don’t know if we just are following our hearts instead of being reasonable, but we decided, no, if we’re gonna do this we’re gonna do this, and I want to be able to participate in our farm in the way that we dreamed of as a family, and I don’t want to have a job or health insurance dictate my time or my livelihood. And pretty much the only way we’re able to do that is because we’re a startup business and aren’t able to make enough money the first year, so we’ll qualify for medicaid. So, in January I left my job, and had insurance up through the last day of January this year, and I applied for Vermont Health Connect and was told that we would qualify for Medicaid. And in mid-february we got a letter that our application was pending and that another application was pending. Since then, we just got a letter, now a month later, saying that we need to prove that we don’t have income at this time, which I’m sure we can do, but it’s stressful being in this limbo at the time not knowing what would happen if there was an accident on the farm or if we needed to access healthcare for any reason. So, I think that this is something that is going to get resolved and I’m not too concerned about it because we are young and healthy, but it is a weight on my shoulders, and a little thought in my mind. If we did have universal healthcare it would completely change the game. I would’ve gone down to part-time in mental health years ago, and been able to continue doing that work but not have to rely on it for the health insurance, which I think for me personally is a much better balance for that kind of work. I think it would change how I view what I can offer our employees. We’re doing our best by offering 5 sick days in a season for folks who are full-time but that’s not providing them with the means of providing them access to healthcare if they are sick. I think it would open up a lot of opportunities for not only us but also so many other people if this was something that could be guaranteed regardless of whether you work for a company that provides benefits or not. Over the past couple years while we had adequate healthcare, I accessed as much as I could possibly do - We went to PT, we went to the dentist twice a year, I was seeing a chiro once a month, and really addressing some long-term chronic things that we just had ever been able to do before partially because we knew that our health insurance might be coming up. But I just think about even now if I do get on health insurance, there will be some aspects of healthcare that are not covered, or not in a place that is easily accessible during hours that we’re able to get off the farm, or, idk, a number of things that get in the way of actually stopping and going and taking care of your health. So I think that not only do we need access to healthcare but, like, health professionals who are willing to work on the evenings or on weekends, or willing to be sliding scale if they’re not covered by health insurance so we can actually access the care that we need. It’s frustrating when I hear people who are criticizing universal healthcare, because they think that it doesn’t give them a choice in their healthcare. But, I’ve made so many, I’ve had my choices limited so much in my life about where I work, which is 40 hours in your week, that I’ve had to leave jobs, not take jobs because they didn’t offer health insurance, and what kind of choice is that? My partner and I are still on the relatively young end of getting our business up and running, and right now we only have the two of us to consider, but when we think of having children, it definitely could change how we’re approaching our health insurance situation. Like right now, while we’re qualifying for Medicaid and then I’m sure (inaudible) and things like that, that would be fine, but like ideally our business is going to grow and make more money, and we don’t want to limit our potential just to qualify for this type of health insurance, but then if we don’t qualify for health insurance, especially once we have children, unless something is different in our country or in our state, probably our work situation is going to have to change as well”.