Over 50? Good Luck Getting Insurance

That's the headline for the letter-to-the-editor I wrote, which appears in the Nov. 27, 2009, edition of The Kansas City Star.

Here's the full text:

Over 50? Good luck getting insurance

For those 50 to 65, it’s difficult to get an individual health insurance policy at any price. Recently I discussed the problem with my cousin, a doctor who is director of research studying heart disease and diabetes for Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest insurance companies.

In frustration I asked, “How does anyone over 50 get insurance, since most have pre-existing conditions?” His response: “Most don’t. What we have is a system of care that is not a system and doesn’t care.” That says it all.

It used to be said that banks would lend money only to people who could prove they didn’t need it. Now we have insurance companies that will provide health insurance only to those who can prove they don’t need it.

Susan Pepperdine
Fairway


My premiums went up 14 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 2009. I went back to $5,000 deductible to keep my premiums more reasonable, but health insurance is still my biggest business expense.

What has your experience been with obtaining coverage?

What Are Your Favorite Books of All Time?

Is there a book that has changed your life? One that you couldn't put down?

It's hard to pick just one! I love the classics, including "Les Miserables" (Victor Hugo), "The Cloister and the Hearth" (Charles Reade) and "Don Quixote" (Miguel de Cervantes). Recent favorites include "The Help" (Kathryn Stockett) and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" (Mary Ann Shaffer).

Here's a letter I sent to the Mizzou Alumni Association magazine, published in the current Winter 2010 issue:

Twenty years ago the Missouri Alumnus magazine (spring 1989) published a Sesquicentennial Sampler of 150 “good reads.” I saved it, and have recommended many of the titles to my book groups, including "Blackberry Winter" by Margaret Mead and "The Guns of August" by Barbara W. Tuchman.

My unexpected favorite was "Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Unset, a Norwegian who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1928. I shared it with my "adopted" uncle, a Pearl Harbor survivor of Norwegian background. He loved the trilogy and said it taught him a lot about his heritage. I loved it, too, and wondered why I had never heard about this woman Nobelist in high school or college.

Thank you for a great reading list that extended beyond the usual "dead white men."

Susan Pepperdine (then Suzy Brown), BJ '69

What are your favorite books of all time?