Farm family finds peace of mind in insurance program

Tammy and Kevin Eastman talk mostly about their farm and their kids.

Foot-Hill Farm in Hartford is the only one on their stretch of Route 40 in rural Washington County. Beside two huge silos, about 200 registered Holsteins, a few dozen chickens and a pig or two fill the barns.

Beyond them, 240 acres of farmland stretch into the distance.

Family farm

The spread is a real family farm:

* Emily, 10, takes pride of ownership in the chickens, which she raises and shows; she tends to come home from school to sit in the barn just to watch them;

* Kristina, 11, showed a cow this summer and earned fifth place in a contest full of adults; and

* Kyle's teacher has asked the first-grader's parents to warn her when his father will be out in the fields during school hours. Kyle's classroom faces the farm, and the sight of his dad on a tractor makes it hard for Kyle to pay attention in class.

"We have a special booster seat in each of the tractors and a cup holder," Mrs. Eastman explained with a trace of embarrassment.

Insurance

About the last thing the Eastmans talk about is health insurance -- probably because it can finally be the last thing on their minds.

After being uninsured and then on Medicaid, Mr. and Mrs. Eastman found out recently that they qualified for the Family Health Plus program operated by Fidelis Care, New York State's Catholic health plan.

The children had already been insured through Fidelis for quite a while.

Growing inside

"My husband and I did have insurance [with another company] until I was five months pregnant with Kyle," Mrs. Eastman told The Evangelist. "Then they dropped us. I don't know why; we just got a letter that we were being dropped, and that was it."

When they applied to other insurers, they were turned down over and over again because of her "pre-existing condition": impending motherhood.

"I didn't think pregnancy was a 'pre-existing condition,'" Mrs. Eastman said wryly.

Work to do

She remembers feeling ashamed, after applying for Medicaid through Washington County, to have to present her Medicaid card at doctor's appointments and again at the hospital when Kyle was born. She didn't like people thinking her family was taking advantage of the system.

"They give you 'that look,'" she said. "I don't like 'that look.' I work for a living. I worked up until the day I had [my children]."

Busy life

The farm work includes cows that need to be milked twice a day, around 5 a.m. and again at 4:30 p.m.

Cows "freshen" (give birth) regularly, and the calves need care. Bull calves are either sent to market or castrated and raised for beef for the family.

Between them and the pig they butcher each fall, Mrs. Eastman noted that she goes grocery shopping only about once a month.

Catch-22

Foot-Hill Farm is a limited liability company (LLC), so the Eastmans are seen by insurers as working for -- not on -- the farm. Even though their income goes back into the farm, many insurers see their "salaries" as too large to qualify them for affordable insurance.

While on Medicaid, the Eastmans tried to keep their health costs to a minimum. Mr. Eastman paid out-of-pocket for an annual flu shot, but his wife didn't get one. When a cow kicked her and fractured her tooth, she had it pulled rather than paying $2,400 for a root canal and other dental work.

A way out

But, when a Fidelis representative made her annual visit to the farm this fall to help in re-certifying the children for Child Health Plus, the Eastmans were thrilled to learn that they, too, qualified for health insurance.

"It makes us feel a little bit better knowing, God forbid, if anything happens," insurance will help with medical costs, Mrs. Eastman said.

"I'm just glad we got it," Mr. Eastman told The Evangelist.

He'd read recently of a South Carolina farmer whose hand became caught in a piece of machinery and was nearly severed; the man had been forced to finish cutting off his own hand to free it. That's the kind of accident the Eastmans fear.

On the other hand, basic health care is all they have needed since signing up with Fidelis. Mrs. Eastman noted proudly that her husband's flu shot was covered by insurance this year, while she was able to visit an OB/GYN for the first time in five years.

"Fidelis has been really good," she remarked.

(The Eastmans are parishioners of St. Mary/St. Paul's parish in Hudson Falls. They bought their farm from Mr. Eastman's parents six years ago. In the summer, Mrs. Eastman gives tours of Foot-Hill Farm to schoolchildren. One cow, "Peach," is known as the "dairy ambassador" because children can touch her and even attempt to milk her, and she doesn't move.)

(12/06/07) [[In-content Ad]]