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After a federal workforce reduction cost her a career spent advancing health equity, Tamira Moon lost her job and her insurance for the first time in her adult life. Now managing a chronic autoimmune condition on a Georgia Access marketplace plan she can barely afford, she has found that even the top coverage tier leaves her unable to pay for basic diagnostics like X-rays.
Annemarie Morse has been on and off MaineCare, Maine's Medicaid program, since the end of 2019, when they first went to a crisis unit and were, in their words, "faced with my mental health full on." They've had health insurance through their employer a few times in between, but at one point, they had to quit a job because it didn't offer coverage, and their income was too high to qualify for MaineCare. This coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for MaineCare but not enough to comfortably afford private insurance or a stable housing — is one many Medicaid recipients know well.
After giving birth, Tyler Denea requested an itemized hospital bill and found charges for care that never happened — including 80 doses of a medication and a procedure she says she didn't receive. Instead of focusing on a difficult postpartum recovery, she spent weeks disputing charges and navigating automated phone lines.
A scuba diving accident led to a hospital stay that also revealed a serious autoimmune disease — one that now requires $16,000 infusions four times a year. Trevor Sherman has comprehensive employer-sponsored coverage that keeps his treatment affordable — but staying insured means he has to keep working, even when stress and exhaustion make his condition worse.
After a miscarriage left her hemorrhaging and in need of emergency care, Kylan D. was hit with nearly $13,000 in medical bills after her insurer wrongly denied coverage. Weeks of daily phone calls and persistence cut the bill down to roughly $2,300 — but she says no grieving family should have to fight that hard just to get the coverage they're owed.
After a car crash broke her back in 17 places, Carry Smith relies on daily antibiotics and a roster of specialists to manage permanent nerve damage and a recurring infection. When her ACA premium jumped from $46 to more than $330 a month, she took on as many as five jobs to keep her coverage — only to have it canceled without warning or explanation months later.
Steve Reyes, a 61-year-old aircraft sales professional in Broward County, Florida, watched his family's health care premium climb from $1,000 a month to full list price once enhanced tax credits disappeared — a jump that had him fighting to find affordable coverage.
Jacklyn Parker spends her days helping Nebraska families navigate Marketplace health insurance, but her own family isn't spared from its gaps. When her daughter Savannah's spinal surgery brought a flood of separate bills and a 30% premium hike forced the family to switch carriers and lose coverage for prescriptions they relied on, Jacklyn found herself facing the same confusing, costly system she spends her career explaining to others.
Shanelle Woods lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and has polymyositis, a rare autoimmune disease, along with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and severe asthma. She spent most of her adult life working, including a position at Washington University where she carried employer-sponsored health insurance. Because of her income level, she also received Medicaid as secondary coverage. In 2021, that secondary coverage became her lifeline.
A survivor of human trafficking and addiction, Cheri Stollar built a career as a trauma therapist while raising six children largely on her own — all of it made possible by Medicaid, which has covered her family "from the beginning." Now a provisionally licensed counselor whose caseload is 95 percent Medicaid recipients, she's watching clients lose access to therapy under new work requirements, even as she wonders whether her own unconventional schedule as a caregiver and provider will put her coverage at risk too.