Our Blue Shield policy covers three people: me, my husband and our four-year-old son. When we bought our high-deductible policy in 2008 it was $242 per month. With our latest rate increase it is $625 a month, up about 15% from last year and double what it was even three years ago. The policy has a $10,000 yearly family deductible and a $20,000 out of pocket limit with a 30% copay. Since we’re all very healthy we’ve never gone over the deductible, so we’ve barely cost the insurance company a penny.

This is prohibitively expensive for us, because we pay for all of our routine care out of pocket and never reach the deductible. I think all the time about just walking away, dropping the policy. But we have a responsibility to our four-year-old and might want another child.

Our premium alone is nearly half the cost of our rent. It feels like paying for nothing.

I tried to shop around with an independent agent, but we need to keep coverage for maternity care and that makes it much more expensive. Buying a new policy would also be prohibitive.

We feel like we’re trapped by the insurance industry. I’m angry at the profit-mongering and the way insurers take advantage of people when they’re healthy and when they’re not.