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Success Stories

All Kids: A Step in the Right Direction

For the self-employed, affordable health insurance is often out of reach. This is especially unjust when a child is involved.

Leslie and her husband are both self-employed — she is a massage therapist and he is an actor. Leslie’s husband is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, or SAG. This union includes actors of all income levels, but it only offers health insurance to members that meet certain income requirements. Moreover, SAG has had to continually raise this threshold because of unrelenting increases in the cost of insurance. This has made it extremely difficult for the couple to consistently qualify for coverage.

Before the advent of All Kids and Family Care, there were periods when Leslie’s family was uninsured. Their income would often dip below the required level for SAG insurance, yet they made too much money to qualify for any of the public programs available at the time. This was especially worrisome given their young son’s behavioral and medical problems. While the couple’s son is bright, he has had difficulties at school because of emotional delays and hyperactivity. He also has allergies that require treatment.

Like any good parents, Leslie and her husband wanted to do everything they could to help their son lead a healthy and well-adjusted life. All Kids has helped them to do that — they no longer have to worry about suddenly becoming uninsured and unable to pay for needed doctor visits. Leslie feels lucky to have been able to access this program, but she realizes the need for a legislative solution to the broader health care crisis. She points out, “We’re the richest country in the world with one of the worst health care systems.” She’s right. According to The Economist, the United States spends 16% of its GDP on health care — much more than other wealthy nations — while still leaving 47 million of its inhabitants uninsured. For this and many other reasons, the World Health Organization ranks the United States a dismal 37th in overall quality of health care provided to its citizens. Programs like All Kids are a great start at remedying this embarrassing state of affairs. However, until all people are guaranteed quality affordable health care, the United States will continue to lag behind its global competitors.