Health Care Stories: "I Have Never In My Life Felt So Helpless and Hopeless"

Tough economic times come with countless difficult decisions and struggles, but losing health insurance should not be one of those.  Today, many part-time jobs don’t offer health insurance, and workers can’t afford to buy coverage on the individual market or are denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Middle class workers like Benjamin need a choice of affordable health insurance plans with adequate subsidies that will provide coverage no matter what pre-existing conditions they have.  And Benjamin can’t be forced to rely on a fraying safety net of free care that meets only some of his medical needs.  Health reform will give people with HIV and other chronic conditions options for comprehensive, high-quality coverage. 

“I found out that the company I had been working for went belly up, meaning no money and no insurance.  Thank God, I was able to find two, 20 plus hour jobs, just no option for insurance.  It was at this time that I found out through a local community mobile test site that I was indeed HIV positive.  Depression set in.  [I] thought my world had come to an end….Then as the Michigan business world turned upside down, I became fully unemployed, and within nine months I also lost the house.  Finding health care, a new house to live in, a job, as well as feeding the family [became difficult]…Going from all the different Department of Health offices, free clinics, and Ryan White funded offices is, to say the least, somewhat degrading.  I have never in my life (45 years) felt so helpless and hopeless.” 

Benjamin, MI

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*Please note that actual names have been changed to protect individual's confidentiality.  Media interested in interviewing HIV-positive people about health-coverage issues should contact AFC Communications Director Johnathon Briggs at jbriggs@aidschicago or 312-334-0922.