How Having Free Healthcare As a Kid Set Me up for Financial Success – Business Insider

I grew up in poverty, and having access to free statewide healthcare back then changed my life.
MassHealth covered me until my early 20s, which prevented huge medical bills and allowed me to save.
Being able to save any money back then helped me substantially grow my net worth as an adult.
Read more at Personal Finance Insider.

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Having grown up in poverty as a child in foster care colors every memory I have of my childhood, and affects my relationship with money to this day. Despite the challenges that I faced while growing up, one thing that I continue to be grateful for is having had access to public health insurance at a point in my life when nothing else was certain.

MassHealth has provided free and subsidized healthcare to Massachusetts residents ever since the program began in 2006, making it possible for low-income people to get medical care without having to go into debt. 

Being able to afford preventative healthcare made a huge difference in my life

When I started paying my own way in high school, healthcare was the one aspect that I never had to worry about. I never had to worry that I couldn’t go to the doctor if necessary, and I was able to make my dental appointments twice a year without fail. 

Having access to preventive healthcare when I was young allowed me to maintain my overall wellbeing, and prevented me from having more serious health issues to fix later on in life. 

Having healthcare despite being poor helped me create the financial foundation that I needed to begin growing my net worth. 

For the most part, I never received a medical bill that I couldn’t pay — leaving me in a better position than the 40% of Americans who have medical debt. 

By not needing to pay an arm and a leg for medical care in my teens and early 20s, I was always able to put a small amount into savings — even when I was barely scraping by — which accumulated over time. 

It’s not perfect, but any hiccups were minor

My experience with MassHealth wasn’t perfect, but the pros outweighed the cons in every category. 

I’ll always remember the time I was in a waiting room, getting fitted for orthotics for shin splints that I’d been having for nearly a year, after the receptionist had told me they accepted MassHealth. 

The doctor came in later to tell me that that was a mistake and they actually didn’t anymore. I remember the shock that had slipped over me — this was the only place I’d found that would take MassHealth, and there was no way I could afford the orthotics otherwise.

I was getting ready to leave when the doctor came back out and said that he made a mistake. I left with the prescription for my $500 orthotics 20 minutes later.

There was another time that my coverage had accidentally lapsed — an error I didn’t find out about until I was leaving the dental office and asked to pay the bill. The $300 bill definitely added a challenge, but I emptied out my emergency fund to pay it and contacted MassHealth’s customer service later that day. 

Though I didn’t get the money reimbursed, I did get my health insurance reinstated and didn’t encounter a problem like that ever again. 

Now, I have the knowledge and experience to know that I likely would have been able to get that bill reimbursed. But at the time, it just felt like a reminder of how lucky I was that this was something I didn’t normally need to worry about. 

Having MassHealth allowed me to build wealth for years

After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, MassHealth was extended to cover former foster youth until they turned 26 — a situation that helped me as long as I maintained permanent residence in Massachusetts. Because of this, I was able to continue building a financial foundation without worrying about medical costs. 

After completing my education at the age of 23, I accepted my first full-time job and found out that they didn’t offer health coverage until you had been there for at least six months. 

But because I was still eligible for MassHealth at that time, I was able to continue saving some of my money every month — without having to worry about the $120 monthly premium that many of my colleagues had to pay while waiting for coverage to kick in. 

Eventually these small amounts snowballed, and my net worth grew substantially. 

I haven’t lived in Massachusetts for over five years. Since then I’ve had to get creative with my health coverage a few times, but I’ve always been able to make it work. 

I’m grateful that I didn’t have to worry about this when I was still trying to find my footing in life. These days, I make sure to deposit money into my health savings account (HSA) every month to ensure that I won’t ever have to worry about this in the future, either.

Taryn Williams

Freelance Writer