Danisha H. (Pittsburgh, PA)

I am one of the almost one million Pennsylvanians without Health Insurance. I am currently working at a small restaurant in Pittsburgh’s south side that is unable to offer me health care coverage so about six months ago I applied for adultBasic Insurance. I have now joined the ranks of the some 200,000 people waiting for affordable health insurance through adultBasic in PA and may have to wait up to an additional two years until I can be covered.

I am a generally healthy young adult living with asthma and year-round allergies. Although I have been fortunate enough to find health care clinics that offer an income based pay scale, I, like many other people, still need affordable health insurance. Maintaining steady health insurance has been a constant struggle throughout my adult life. During most of my college years I was uninsured because my family had no health insurance for me to be covered under.

In the summer of 2006 I began working a sales job at Prizants Flooring where I received affordable health insurance, but in 2008, Prizants went out of business and I lost my health insurance once again. Later that same year I thought that I might have another opportunity to be insured after starting a new sales job. However, I was shocked when I found out that it was going to cost me about $400 a month to have coverage through this employer! After this I began looking for health insurance on the private market only to find that it was again far too expensive to afford. I would have had to pay around $200 a month and I found it too hard to know what would even be covered at that price. This is not to mention the $500 to $1000 dollar deductible which I knew I would not be able to pay in the case of an emergency.

Affordable health care coverage is essential for everyone. No one should ever have to postpone going to the emergency room for an asthma attack, as I have done in the past just because they were afraid they could not afford it. If I was on a program like adultBasic I might be able to manage my asthma even better and I would have the security of knowing that I’m covered in the case of an emergency. Hundreds of thousands of people shouldn’t have to sit on this wait list for years and hope that nothing happens. Legislators should listen to the stories of people like me and pass bills that will help every Pennsylvanian get access to the quality, affordable health care that we all deserve.