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My health insurance through the union kept us from going bankrupt and losing everything.

My husband, Alan, was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in February 2004. He died 22 months later, at 39. He was the love of my life. I was 36, a widow with three small children.

The two years he fought were intense and heartbreaking, but what was terrifying were the medical bills. Alan’s initial hospital stay cost more than $150,000. One of the medications he took was $1,000 a month. Alan was a stock broker but immediately had to stop working because he was so sick. I was the sole provider.

With everything falling apart around me, I could cope with the financial burden because of my health insurance through the union. What helped me survive emotionally was that, thanks to the union, I could go with Alan to appointments and care for him without worrying I would lose my job for missing days.

I’m very pro-union because unions have far greater bargaining power to negotiate for our basic rights as human beings than any one person could do alone.

— Iris Zucker, IS 10 teacher, Queens

You have health benefits that you can count on if serious illness strikes you or a close family member. Most Americans, without a union, are not so lucky.

UFT MEMBERS

City health insurance: The vast majority of DOE-employed UFT members do not pay monthly premiums. They can select from nine city health insurance plans. Most members choose GHI-EmblemHealth, which has:

1. Annual limits on out-of-pocket expenses
2. No deductibles or low deductibles
3. No referrals for specialists

Dental, optical and drug benefits: DOE-employed UFT members also enjoy supplemental health benefits including prescription drugs, dental care, eyeglasses or contact lenses, hearing aids, disability and private-duty nursing. This wraparound coverage comes at no cost to the members.

Health insurance for life: As part of their retirement package, UFT retirees get no-cost, lifetime health insurance, which supplements Medicare for those over 65.

And more: A continuation of coverage for family members if the UFT member passes away; a death benefit (apart from money from the pension system); special leave-of-absence coverage for restoration of health; and health coverage during a child care leave.

Find out more.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

Millions of uninsured: One third of working Americans under the age of 65 do not have health insurance through their employer. About 10.7 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2015.

Big premiums: If they are lucky enough to have employer-provided health insurance, workers pay $1,071 on average in annual premiums for individual health coverage and $4,955 for family coverage.

Big out-of-pocket expenses: The average New Yorker spends about $8,400 a year on health care, including premiums, doctors’ visits, prescription drugs, nursing homes, hospitalization, over-the-counter medications, eyeglasses and hearing aids.

Sky-high drug costs: About 576,000 Americans spent more than $53,600 — the median household income — on prescription drugs in 2014.

Higher deductibles: Eighty percent of workers enrolled in employer-provided health care plans pay an annual deductible of $1,318 or more for individuals. Deductibles have increased 67 percent since 2010, much faster than wages or the rate of inflation.

Sources: Congressional Budget Office, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Express Scripts. Compiled by Anne Silverstein