Charles Keppler thought he was doing everything right.
The 29-year old Stroudsburg resident manages a warehouse, serves as a township commissioner, and is raising a 4-year-old son with his wife. He budgets carefully, works hard, and tries to plan for the future. He said he’s doing everything he grew up believing would lead to a stable, middle-class life.
“I work full time,” Keppler said. “I’m involved in my community. Even still, I just feel like we can’t get ahead.”
Keppler isn’t alone. Gas prices, groceries, utilities, and housing costs are squeezing already tight budgets across Pennsylvania. At the same time, Republican-backed cuts to Medicaid and the expiration of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies are pushing healthcare even further out of reach.
For Pennsylvanians like Keppler, affordability isn’t a policy debate. It’s about making the hard decision about whether his family can live without health insurance.
During the pandemic, the enhanced ACA tax credits made coverage affordable for the Keppler family. But when Republicans allowed them to expire, premiums jumped more than they could afford, so they had to drop their insurance. Their son is covered by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
“My wife and I, we’re kind of on our own,” Keppler said.
But going without insurance to save money is a risk that doesn’t always pay off. Earlier this year, Keppler began losing feeling in one of his arms. To avoid medical expenses, he put off going to a doctor. By the time he got treatment, the pinched nerve required months of physical therapy that had to be paid for out of pocket.
“The longer you put it off, the more it ends up costing you,” he said.
The hardest part, he added, isn’t the large, unexpected expenses. It’s the increase in the everyday ones.
“It’s the grocery bill that somehow costs $75 more than it did a few years ago.It’s the electric bill. It’s the cost of simply existing.”
Just a few years ago, Keppler said his family could afford to go on a vacation. This year, their vacation may be a weekend at a campground if they’re lucky.
“I can’t even afford health insurance or a vacation. I want my son to be able to have those memories.”
As a kid, Keppler remembers that hs father was able to support a family of six on a union plumber’s salary and still take a vacation.
“I don’t want my son growing up in a world that’s worse than the one I grew up in,” Keppler said.
Falling behind
David Zins knows what it feels like to fall behind.
The 64-year old Bethlehem resident spent decades working as a firefighter before retiring. But retirement hasn’t been as relaxing as he thought it would be.
His Social Security check, about $1,300 a month, wasn’t enough to pay the bills, so he went back to work. After losing a delivery job last winter, Zins tapped into his savings just to survive as he looked for work.
Then came the decisions no one ever wants to make.
“I was like, either I pay the insurance or I don’t pay my bills,” Zins said. “It was either food or gas in the car.”
Zins couldn’t afford the increase in premiums so he dropped his health insurance. A few weeks later, kidney stones sent him to the hospital twice. The bills started to pile up.
“It was more than $1,100 for the emergency room visits,” Zins said. “Hundreds more for an MRI. I still have medical debt from years earlier. My bank account is in the negative. Who do I pay this week? Who do I not pay this week?”
For Zins, affordability isn’t about giving up luxuries—it’s about wondering if he’ll be able to afford groceries or a roof over his head in the same month.
“Life is just unaffordable right now,” he said.
Working just to afford basics
Matthew Emerle feels the affordability crisis every time he opens his wallet.
The mechanic and his wife recently moved from the Poconos to Center Valley because commuting to work became too expensive. From gas, turnpike tolls and vehicle maintenance, Emerle estimated he was spending nearly $1,000 every month just to go to work. Moving closer solved the commuting expense, but created increased housing costs.
“The money that we’re saving is going into the rent right now,” Emerle said.
Grocery prices are another strain to the couple’s budget.
“You buy paper towels and toilet paper and you’re at, like, $60,” Emerle said. “It’s like $100 became the new $10.”
Emerle and his wife no longer take vacations. They don’t really buy steaks anymore. And just about every purchase they make is debated about whether it’s needed more than something else.
“We don’t even have kids,” Emerle said. “Neither of us think we make bad money, and yet it’s almost like you’re poor all the time.”
The financial strain has changed more than just Emerle’s spending habits. He and his wife had once hoped to adopt children. Now they don’t think they can afford to.
“We can barely afford to take care of ourselves,” Emerle said. “Your own dreams in life are going down the tube because everything’s too expensive.”
What happened?
All three men agreed that times have changed. Working hard no longer guarantees security, and “doing everything right” is no longer enough.
Zins thinks about his parents often. His father was a police officer and his mother was a nurse. They raised six children, owned a home, and took family vacations.
“I’m at that age where I should have that, and I don’t,” Zins said.
Emerle said he doesn’t know how his parents managed to raise three children on one income.
“I make way more than my dad was making,” Emerle said. “We have two incomes and I can’t do anything.”
Keppler remembers going on family vacations while his father was the sole supporter of the family.
“I’m a manager with my company and I can’t even afford health insurance or a vacation,” Keppler said.
For Keppler, the promise of the American dream that he grew up on feels farther away than it once did.
“If this is what doing everything right looks like, what else are we supposed to do?”
