Health Care Affects Us All

Read about the successes and shortcomings of our health care system

Hear from Your Neighbors

Cut away the politics, and health care is about real people’s lives.

We’ve been speaking with members of the community for years, collecting their stories to put faces and names to the devastating health policy issues facing our state, as well as the success stories following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010.

Your story helps others see the real-life effects of our health care system

Featured Stories

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Shan

Shan is a St. Louis resident and lifelong Missourian. They have lived for many years with severe ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.

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Deborah A.

I have been uninsured since the day that I turned 26 years old, so it’s been nearly 4 years now. Just a few weeks after

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Shannon McKinney

Shannon McKinney is a Joplin-based staff attorney at Legal Aid of Western Missouri, specializing in housing and consumer law. She’s been practicing law for almost

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Sam McAninch

Sam is a 30-year-old intensive care float nurse who has worked at Cox Hospital in Springfield for the last 5 years. Since COVID-19 broke out

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Ryan K.

Ryan works as a handyman for a local property management company in Joplin. At the end of August 2020, he contracted COVID-19. Ryan started getting

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Larry Batt

Larry is a 57-year-old former carpenter from Lebanon, MO who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2013. At the time, he had insurance through his

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Nichelle Harris

Nichelle lives with her husband and three children in the Kansas City area, where she works for a heating and cooling service provider. Although she

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Brittney

Since 2017, Brittany has relied on Medicaid to provide health care for her three children. She found out they were dropped from coverage when she

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Rai

When Rai became pregnant at age 19, she was on her mother’s insurance. Unfortunately, her mother did not have pregnancy coverage on her plan. Luckily,

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Van and Renda

Van is a 56-year-old resident of Sparta, Missouri. He and his wife Renda have a variety of illnesses that they try to manage despite their

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Debi Pratt

Debi is married, a mother, grandparent, neighbor, active volunteer, and works as an office manager in St. Louis. At the beginning of the pandemic she

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