J. Kelly
J, a 41-year-old mother of two in Joplin, has been uninsured for almost seven years and will qualify for Medicaid once the program is expanded on July 1st, 2021. Before Medicaid was expanded, J’s household income exceeded the stringent income eligibility limits currently in place. The last time J had health care coverage, she was […]
Elizabeth Lewis
Over the last decade, Elizabeth Lewis has built a career as a nurse practitioner, focusing on women’s health. “I knew when I went into university that I wanted to take care of patients who were vulnerable. When I graduated with my undergraduate nursing degree, I started my career at a safety net hospital in Kansas […]
Maxine and Ken Horgan
Maxine and Ken Horgan are retired volunteers at the Good Samaritan Care Clinic in Mountain View. She worked as a dental assistant before marrying and starting a family with Ken. “All the years when our kids were growing up, we could not afford insurance and even though we were very lucky with no major illnesses, […]
Autumn Stultz
Autumn is a 31-year-old Springfield resident with a seven-year-old daughter who was dropped from Medicaid unexpectedly. Her daughter suffers from severe migraines which require frequent visits to doctors’ offices. Autumn has taken her daughter to an allergist, a cardiologist, and a neurologist, and they have still not discovered the root of her migraines. The stress […]
C. Garcia
Garcia is a fourth-generation military veteran, writer, poet, and activist in Kansas City, MO. After eight years of service, she was released in April 2007. Adjusting to civilian life proved to be more difficult than she could have ever imagined. “I would like to say that war was the worst experience of my life, but […]
Haji Culton
Haji has been living in Festus, MO without insurance for just over 10 years after losing his job and health coverage. In that span of time, Haji was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and has seen his health decline. Without health insurance, he’s had trouble consistently seeing a primary care physician and affording his medication. […]
Brennan England
Brennan is a South St. Louis resident, entrepreneur, and elected member of the community improvement district in his neighborhood. His entrepreneurial spirit and care for the wellbeing of others brought him into Missouri’s young medical cannabis industry. “I worked to get legalization on the ballot in Missouri. As I started my journey with that activism, […]
John D.
“Every day I think I could be infected because of my job.” John D. is a firefighter working tirelessly to serve St. Louis during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also a husband and father of two, and his role as a first responder during the pandemic means his family has to take extra precautions. “We […]
Mahala Pittman
Mahala Pittman, a 20-year-old college student from Festus, got COVID-19 while she was home for the summer. Mahala was careful about wearing a mask when going to work, but, of course, others were not. She is not sure where she got it from, and so far, those around her have tested negative. Once she started […]
Scott Gulledge
Scott works in the mental health field. He knows how to support people in grief and has experienced loss himself, but losing his mother to COVID-19 two days before Christmas was shocking and heartbreaking on a whole new level. Scott and his mother were close. They had lunch together once a week and talked on […]
