Angela's Story

“I was living in Illinois when I found out that I was pregnant, working at a temp agency with no insurance coverage.  I applied for Illinois Medicaid fairly easily but the wait time to see a doctor was 2 months.  Before that appointment, however, because I was involved in an abusive relationship, I ended up relocating to Portland, Oregon, and sought refuge in a domestic violence shelter and applied for the Oregon Health Plan.  I found a job and worked for 2 days when, at 26 weeks of pregnancy, I went into labor.  My son was in the NICU for 109 days and had double hernia surgery and a GI tube put in before he left the hospital.

"If we did not have OHP, I don't know what we would have done.  There is no way I could have afforded to pay for his hospital bills without OHP.  But thankfully now I am working full-time, we have good insurance through my employer, and we are both doing well.”

- Angela K., Oregon