Kansas Stories: Carolyn

Carolyn Thomas was uninsured for a significant portion of her children’s adolescence. Fortunately, those children were able to be covered by Medicaid. She is a single mother who worked in warehouses to earn a living, where she developed Achilles tendinitis. This made working long shifts at the warehouse immensely difficult. After working nine straight days […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Behavioral Health, Disability Stories, Workforce Stories

Kansas Stories: Beth

Beth is from Lindsborg, KS. She is a mom of three and has a disability. Beth has struggled to access health insurance for many years, and it’s been difficult to hear she doesn’t qualify for state insurance programs like KanCare. Though insured now, easier access to health insurance would have made a huge difference for […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Disability Stories, Workforce Stories

Kansas Stories: Stacy

Stacy Burns is from Newton, KS. She has three adult children who live in Pittsburg, KS. Stacy is disabled and recently gained health insurance, but this wasn’t always the case for her. Stacy worked at a part-time job that did not provide insurance, and she couldn’t afford to pay for private insurance. Then she was […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Disability Stories, Workforce Stories

Kansas Stories: Randy

Randy Keith is from Wichita, where he lives with his wife of 13 years and their two children. Randy lost his job in January but worked hard to line up a new one by March. Things were looking up for the family, but then COVID-19 hit Kansas, and the job was no longer available. Randy […]

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Kansas Stories: Jill

Jill Brown is from Hutchinson. She has two children, is engaged, and owns Jillian’s Italian Grill. Like many small-business owners, Jill is unable to provide health insurance to her employees because it is unaffordable. She herself is self-insured. Many her kitchen staffers do not have insurance for themselves and their families. She believes that Medicaid […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Small Business Stories, Workforce Stories

Catching up with our health care storytellers

By Marissa Alcantar | June 6, 2020 As the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas’ storybank fellow, my job for the past year has been seeking out uninsured Kansans and learning about their experiences with our health care system. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to check in with some of the storytellers […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Behavioral Health, Workforce Stories

Kansas Stories: David

David’s permanent home is in Herington, Kansas, but he currently lives and works in Colorado. Like many Kansans, David works in a profession that doesn’t always have steady hours. He’s an archeologist, and for six months of the year he is working in the field. With his work comes health insurance. But during the other […]

Topics: All Consumer Stories, Workforce Stories

Kansas Stories: Debra Stanley

Debra lives in Iola and is currently uninsured. She gets chronic migraines and has depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic fatigue syndrome and asthma. On top of all that, Debra recently discovered she has Type 2 diabetes. Managing one chronic condition without insurance is hard enough. Debra is trying to manage seven. She is in the coverage […]