Carmen

CARMEN IS A HARD-WORKING MOM WHO, LIKE MANY OTHERS ACROSS THE STATE, DOES NOT HAVE CONSISTENT ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE 

“Not having insurance has a daily effect on my life.”

Born and raised in Albany, Carmen is a single mother with four young children who make her proud. “Without them, I wouldn't have as much drive as I do,” says Carmen. “Being a single mother of four, you really don't have much downtime, so that really pushes me to get up and go every day.” 

Although Carmen works part-time, she does not have access to employer-sponsored coverage. With inconsistent work hours every month, she is never sure how much income she will be taking home. When she was pregnant, she received healthcare coverage through Medicaid. However, she is currently uninsured and struggling to find affordable health insurance.  She shares her story below. “I just hope that, whenever anyone sees or hears this conversation, it helps actually make a change because there is something that can be done,” Carmen says. “It's just someone has to be willing to make that change.”

Struggling with the Stigma of Accessing Care Without Insurance

“I have multiple cysts that keep coming back. A few months ago, I had some rupture inside of me. I had surgery in April of this year. I feel like I wasn't given the complete care that I would have been given if I did have health insurance.  

It was like I was in surgery one day, and the next day I was leaving the hospital. I didn't feel like I was up to par to leave, but with me not having insurance, they're looking at it as, “You’re just going to sit here and run up a bill.” So, the doctor was like, “We're going to discharge you,” even though I still felt horrible. I had a fever at the time, but there's only so much you can do once you're told they're discharging you. 

I didn't get a follow up appointment with the person who did my surgery at all. They told me to just contact my OB. When I went to my OB, she was kind of appalled. When she gave me another ultrasound, she was like, “It looks like your cysts are returning.” That put me back in the situation of having to constantly go to the doctor again. With me not having insurance, I'm paying a $25 sliding scale fee every time I go to figure out why the cysts keep returning and why my body was holding an infection. It wasn’t only the cysts; the infection was affecting my appendix. I had the infection removed and my appendix as well. So, with that, it's like, “Oh well, you have this lab to do,” and I'm like, “Well, I can't do this today because I'm already trying to pay for my last lab.” 

I feel like I wasn't able to be able to get that follow up appointment with the surgeon because I did not have access to insurance. If I had, he would have been able to look at my incision and tell if it was healing properly. It's very scary because sometimes I can't even sleep. It just feels like a hole in my side. I just try to keep high spirits about the situation and go on.  

As a human being, you wouldn't think that the human part of a doctor, nurse, or a provider of any kind of care would treat you differently because you don't have insurance. Being someone who has had insurance and then having no insurance at all, it has been a big change in my life. I feel like you are treated differently when you don't have insurance, and you are looked at differently when you don't have insurance. I just feel like something needs to be done to change that.” 

Battling Illness As An Uninsured Caretaker

“Just recently, my children had the flu. They have insurance, so I was able to take them to their pediatrician and get them something to help with it. But it seemed like as soon as I got them back in good standing, I caught the flu. With me not having insurance, I went to urgent care. I paid the out-of-pocket fee to be seen, and they tested me and told me that I had the flu. I already knew, but I just needed the confirmation for myself and for work as well. 

Once they confirmed that, they prescribed me some medicine. When I got to the pharmacy, I couldn't afford the medicine at the time, so I had to try to cure myself from the flu. I had to call my grandmother and just try to do what I could because I didn't have the money at the time to buy the medicine. Being a parent and just now getting my children well, it was horrible for me because I really just had to allow my body to fight off the infection on its own.”