Wisconsin farm families at risk
University of Wisconsin-Extension provides rural families with current information on health-insurance options and resources
University of Wisconsin research shows that many farm families don't have insurance coverage for their children or preventive care for the entire family. Photo by Jay Salvo
Carol Roth, UW-Extension outreach specialist with the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies (PATS), knows how health-care costs affect farm families. Eighteen years ago she made the hard decision to find a job off the family dairy farm. The reason? Her family needed health insurance.
Sobering statistics
Through ongoing research at PATS, Roth and her colleagues keep tabs on the state of rural health care in Wisconsin.
What they find is sobering.
About 40%of dairy-farm families report they are uninsured or underinsured. The rest say they have health insurance, but often their insurance is "catastrophic" coverage with very high deductibles.
High costs
"Four out of five dairy-farm families don't have preventive care," Roth says. "They don't see the dentist. They don't have coverage for their children. They don't have insurance to stay healthy. They only have catastrophic insurance so they won't lose the farm if an adult has a serious illness."
A private policy costs $800 to $1,200 a month for a family. Many families report they pay even more. Like Roth, some leave the farm for jobs with benefits. However, jobs in rural areas often don't pay well enough to make up for the loss of a worker on the farm. And often the health benefit offered by small businesses is still inadequate.
Options and resources
"We try to educate people about this situation, inform them about options, connect them to resources, and encourage them to take action to improve access to health care," Roth says.
Roth speaks to many groups-extension colleagues, business associations, legislators, agricultural organizations-about the status of health care and current legislation. She also presents possible options-BadgerCare, Co-op Care, the Wisconsin Well Women Program and health savings accounts. She and Joy Kirkpatrick, a UW-Extension specialist at the Center for Dairy Profitability, include the topic in their Heart of the Farm workshops for women in agriculture.
A big risk
"The Heart of the Farm workshops help women manage risks to their farm businesses," Roth says. "But not all risk is financial. Going uninsured is a very big risk."— Mary Ellen Bell
For more information: PATS research on rural health care:
www.pats.wisc.edu
Heart of the Farm:
www.uwex.edu/ces/heartofthefarm/