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Susan Alleman is a 57-year-old resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, who spent most of her adult life uninsured and hoping for the best. She had seen the health care system up close — navigating it alongside her partner during his long illness before he died of cancer in 2021, and then again with her father in 2023. By 2024, it was her turn.
Carmilla Collins is a 51-year-old single mother living in Douglas County, Omaha, Nebraska. She works full time and holds a part-time job to make ends meet, raising her 15-year-old daughter while supporting herself on paychecks that leave little margin for error — and even less for unexpected medical bills. For the better part of a year and a half, she had no health insurance at all.
Lily Fang didn't leave her full-time job until she had a safety net: New York's Essential Plan, with no premium and no deductible. Now, federal cuts are eliminating that coverage for 450,000 New Yorkers, and for Lily, the loss is about more than a doctor's visit — it's about whether maintaining self-employment is feasible.
Gabriela Palacios spent her childhood in and out of hospitals, misdiagnosed for fourteen years with a condition that is unbelievably rare. Today she is 21, thriving in college, and accepted into a master's program — proof, she says, that a diagnosis does not define you.
Bill McAdams built a 13-year career as an emergency room nurse, caring for people at their most vulnerable. In September 2025, he had an ischemic stroke while on assignment in Indiana — and woke up with a $93,000 hospital bill. Uninsured, he navigated the charity care system with the same determination he brought to his patients — only to be denied, misled, and pushed to a breaking point that ended in a second stroke.
Mariah Plante works full time in Wyoming County, West Virginia, while serving as the primary caregiver for her brother Matt, who is legally blind and has nonverbal autism. Medicaid keeps Matt living at home with family rather than in a facility — but as threats to that coverage mount and the cost of her own ACA plan climbs, Mariah is navigating an impossible balancing act that millions of working caregivers across the country know all too well.
A Pennsylvania mother dropped her own health insurance to keep her husband and children covered — a decision that nearly cost her life when an untreated infection progressed to sepsis.
Britney Lynn found a medication that worked to manage her diabetes — until her insurance stopped paying for it. Trying to manage her condition without access to the drugs she needs caused her to lose her job and can cost hundreds of dollars a month out-of-pocket, leading Britney to forgo care or use less effective medications with worse side-effects.
Dee Burrell was 50 years old when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and spent three years in treatment — and while her health insurance helped, she quickly learned that even covered patients can fall through the cracks of America's broken health care system.
After years without proper monitoring of a known liver condition, Liliana Zelaya was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in March 2025 — and then spent seven months waiting for treatment while her son Leo battled their Medicare Advantage insurer through failed authorizations, inaccurate network information and contradictory cost estimates. She died in January 2026 at 74.