How to Help Sick Kids Get Better When Insurance Isn’t Enough
During the month of August, Real World Health Care will take a short break from focusing on medical breakthroughs and the researchers who are shaping the future of medicine. We will instead bring you a special series from our sponsor, the HealthWell Foundation, about what happens when families cannot afford the medical treatments their children desperately need. The families we will profile have turned to the Foundation for help, through the HealthWell Pediatric Assistance Fund®, the only fund of its kind.
Since its launch in 2013, HealthWell’s Pediatric Assistance Fund has awarded more than $850,000 in grants to help more than 400 children start or continue critical treatments covering more than 90 disease areas and conditions, including ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, Type 1 Diabetes, epilepsy, scoliosis, seizure disorder and many more. The Fund covers family cost-shares for surgical procedures, medical devices, counseling services and prescription drug copays. This week, we’d like you to meet Karis, whose family can’t afford her type 1 diabetes testing supplies.
Imagine this: You take your child to the doctor thinking she has an infection. You discover that she has a life-altering condition and your health insurance doesn’t cover all the costs.
That’s what happened to Alicia Bell when her daughter Karis was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Says Bell: “There are no vacations from being a parent, and there are no vacations from being a parent of a T1D child.”
Bell was not only surprised at her daughter’s diagnosis, she was further amazed to find her insurance wouldn’t pay for all the diabetic testing supplies Karis would need.
Did You Know?
60% of bankruptcies in the U.S. are related to medical expenses.
The Bell family is far from unique. Each year, more and more Americans are forced to choose between paying for lifesaving treatments and for food, housing and utilities. People may cut pills in half, skip meals or housing payments or declare bankruptcy. An estimated 29 million Americans are underinsured and more than 60 percent of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are related to medical expenses. In the Bells’ case, Alicia would need to go into serious credit card debt just to pay for her daughter’s diabetes monitoring and testing supplies.
“I would never want money to factor into my daughter’s health care,” Bell says. “I’d sell my
Karis and her new insulin monitor
house and everything I own if I had to.”
Fortunately, when health insurance is not enough, there is a group that helps close the gap, putting life-changing medications within reach for thousands of people in need and helping to pay for prescription drug copayments, deductibles and health insurance premiums for critical treatments.
A HealthWell Foundation Pediatric Assistance Fund grant not only pays for Karis’ supplies—including an insulin monitor, so Karis doesn’t have to have her finger stuck several times a day—it pays the co-insurance for her hospital and clinic visits and will help pay for an insulin pump if and when she needs one.
Your generous gift to the HealthWell Foundation can help kids like Karis and others afford the medical treatments they desperately need. Consider a monthly gift, a tribute or memorial donation, or an employer-sponsored fundraiser or end-of-year giving campaign to make an extraordinary and lasting difference in the lives of kids in need. Donate today.