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Private Insurance

Michele Gonzalez: When Getting a Job Made Health Care Less Affordable

Card Image Michele Gonzalez is a 45-year-old from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, managing COPD, a lung nodule, and a mental health diagnosis. When she transitioned from Medicaid to employer-sponsored insurance, she found herself unable to afford the medications, therapy, and psychiatric care she had relied on — forcing her to stop treatment entirely.

Affordable Care Act

Nancy Weaver: Caught in the Coverage Gap

Card Image Nancy Weaver is a fiber artist and weaver from Ashe County, North Carolina, who spent years without health insurance after losing her husband and falling into the ACA coverage gap. Without coverage, she went years without adequate treatment for a debilitating autoimmune disease, eventually reaching a mental health crisis. When steady employment finally made her eligible for ACA subsidies, insurance gave her access to the specialist care, medication management, and therapy that she describes as life-changing. Now, she fears losing it again.

Facility Fees

Jessica Pineda: Fighting for Price Transparency While Her Symptoms Worsen

Card Image After a lymphoma diagnosis and a stint on Medicaid, Arizona resident Jessica Pineda thought she was back on track when she secured employer-sponsored coverage. But a surprise $1,250 facility fee forced her to cancel a procedure she urgently needs, leaving a cancer survivor with worsening symptoms and no clear path to care.

Affordable Care Act

Andy Keith: Chronic Illness, Surprise Bills and the Fear of Losing Coverage

Card Image Andy Keith is a 26-year-old resident of Wichita, Kansas who depends on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace to manage her complex medical conditions. As a teenager, she was diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases, Graves and Hashimoto’s, and a thyroid imbalance. Up until last year, Andy was covered by her parents’ private plan. Now, she has a marketplace plan that provides full coverage for her medical care.

Medicaid

Nan Macklin: A Community Health Worker's Fight to Protect Medicaid in Rural Missouri

Card Image Nan Macklin is a Community Health Worker in the Bootheel region of Missouri, serving families who rely on Medicaid and Medicare. She works with seniors and small children in one of the poorest counties in the state. Nan explained that between 80-90% of the patients she serves rely on some form of state assistance. Her connection to Medicaid is personal as well as professional. As a single mother, she utilized Medicaid for her daughter's health care.

Medicaid

Dariya Walker: A Young Voice for Health Care Justice

Card Image Dariya Walker is a high school student in Florissant, Missouri. Dariya and her family use Medicaid to access health care services, and she appreciates the peace of mind that having coverage gives her and her family.

Medicaid

Tina Roath: Challenging the Stigma Around Medicaid

Card Image Tina Roath is a 54-year-old woman with five children living in Kansas City, Missouri. She depends on Medicaid to help cover the care she needs. Though not her first time using the program — she previously relied on it for secondary coverage during her pregnancies — she now depends on it to manage a recently developed disability.

Medicaid

Andrea Martin: A Heart Transplant Survivor's Fight to Keep Medicaid

Card Image After two heart transplants and ongoing health complications, Andrea Martin relies on Medicaid for life-sustaining medications, specialist care, and mental health support. Any cuts to her coverage would be devastating — not just for her survival, but for her two sons and the disabled community that depends on these essential services.

Affordable Care Act

Anne Marie Schneider: How Rising Premiums Push Families Out of Care

Card Image Anne Marie Schneider lives in Durham, North Carolina, and has spent more than three decades working across nearly every corner of the health care system. After losing her job with only days to act, Anne Marie and her husband turned to the ACA Marketplace. Given their circumstances, the family qualified for enhanced ACA tax credits, but without subsidies, the cost was impossible.

Topics

Topics