I work at a non profit organization serving children in LA County FosterCare. All of our kids receive their healthcare coverage through MediCal. Without this, 30,000 kids in LA County, who have no real parents to speak of, would have absolutely no access to healthcare. This is...

My family of three currently depends on my job for health insurance. I've enjoyed this job for the last 7 years, and it's been good to me. However, the commute to the job is taking up too much of the time I would prefer to be spending with my toddler, and there are no possib...

We were charged in excess of $2000 for 3 hours in the Emergency Room at Glendale Memorial Hospital. It was on a Sunday and our pediatrician wasn't in the office to give us a prescription for a steroid we needed to help our son. He had a bad case of the croup which had been d...

In 2006 my husband left the family for a girlfriend, and his well paying/extremely dangerous job serving our country in Iraq. I suddenly was a single mother with no job, no income, and no health insurance. Due to my now-ex-husband's career change, his income has become sporadi...

Hi My name is Denise. I have 3 children. I am fortunate enough to be able to qualify for Healthy Families. This has made a huge difference to our lives. It literally means that we can afford to keep our house as we can pay the monthly mortagage and so prevent forecloxure. Payi...

I get angry when I hear the argument that we can't have any kind of universal healthcare because then we won't be able to choose our own doctor. I've been employed and living in the same house the whole time I've been a mom and my kids and I have had to change doctors 4 times ...

I inherited my teenage brother and sister as a result of financial hardship. Due to neglect, they didn't have a lot of common sense basics that most children learn gently, gradually as they grow up. Knowing that they would be eligible for Medi-Cal was a reassurance to me that ...

When my son was 12 years old, he got appendicitis. If I had had a health plan, he would have gone to the doctor immediately for a "tummy ache" and vomiting. We cared for him all weekend, but by Monday morning, when he still couldn't keep anything down, I took him to the doct...

I work for a family owned business with my husband, father and brother. Both my family and my brother's family have 3 young children. Despite many long hours spent researching the best small business provider of health care benefits, the costs are so high, that we have all put...

Medical saved my daughter's life! My daughter Ellie was born with reflux. Seemingly innocent, a condition that many children have and outgrow. But Ellie was different. She would choke, and turn blue and had pnumonia by the time she was 10 days old and would become dehydrated f...

A year ago, when I sat down to write about my five-year-old daughter’s hospitalization, I had no idea it would lead me to testifying at a hearing in Sacramento before a California State Senate subcommittee on Health and Social Services. I also didn’t know how it would f...

I was very lucky to have been able to qualify for Healthy Families coverage for my son for one year. I barely qualified then because I did not receive an income from my employer while I was on maternity leave. Now I cannot qualify for Healthy Families to continue my son's heal...

As a public school teacher, you would think my district would provide excellent healthcare for me and my family. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. My district only covers 75% of my healthcare costs and NONE of my son's. Instead of paying the $500 a month for healthcare thr...

My two children have received excellent public health benefits in San Francisco since before they were born. I qualified for no-cost Medi-cal during both pregnancies though my partner and I were both self-employed. Since the kids (ages 5 and 2.5) were born, he has provided t...

When my husband went back to school to get his Ph.D. six years ago, we struggled to find healthcare for myself and my two daughters (the university provided care for my husband only). I'm self-employed and take care of the kids, so I didn't have health benefits. We applied for...

We need healthcare for our children but also for those adults who care for them. If an adult is ill and a child has healthcare, there is still something missing. My concern is for the bureaucracy we now suffer under (private insurance) and the waste of resources that could ...

We have a health insurance policy for our children, but it does not cover most of the preventative treatments that have been working best for our family. Also, because my husband's company is based outside the US, we have to maintain a private policy, the cost of which is very...

When I lost my job after my first son was born we went on Medicare. When I found new work, we were later able to go on to Healthy Families. I've been ever grateful for the coverage. My eldest son suffers from a more mild sensitivity spectrum disorder. He is both excessivel...

Our kids are our future. The cost of preventative health care is a small price to pay for healthy, productive adults.

I joined up with MomsRising, but I am not actually a mom. (I'm an aunt, though.) I have no kids of my own. I have no spouse or partner. I live alone. But until recently I could not get health insurance because of a combination of unemployment (no access/can't afford it) and pa...