Since June 2020, the Community Voices for Health in Monroe County team has hosted small group discussions and personal interviews with more than 150 community members to enhance our understanding of community perspectives on health in Monroe County. The following stories were gathered from these sessions.

These stories will inform the project as we work with community members and decision-makers to move towards solutions for health in Monroe County.

Perhaps because of immigration status, it is not possible to buy health insurance. It’s sad for many people because, with me, everything turned out okay. But with other people, it might not be okay and then they can die. In my situation, it was people with good intentions that helped me put the money together. I am aware that not many people have the chance to get that amount of money to get surgery. 

- Small Group Participant

One of my clients this past January was a Type 1 diabetic with a hearing impairment. She ran out of insulin, was no longer in HIP, had no insurance. She was working 18 hours a week at $10/11 hour and could not afford to purchase insulin. I made 30 calls over 2-3 weeks to try to straighten out the situation. She should not have been thrown out of HIP. She was alone with no family. The system makes it very difficult at times. There is no safety net.

- Small Group Participant

Within the last 22 seconds I’ve received two calls about health insurance. My wife just turned Medicare-age and we’re getting constant calls from medical people saying “you need this and you need that.” I’m a pretty educated person, so how do uneducated people in our society figure out the complexity of our healthcare system, how you pay for it, insurance, etc.? A greater simplicity in the healthcare system is needed, so it’s not so complex and difficult to access. America does not have the best healthcare system in the world and we’re proving it right now in this pandemic. We’re not well organized. People who need it the most are not able to access it and their needs go untreated. It’s shameful.

- Small Group Participant

With Part D insurance [for prescriptions], everything is a nightmare. First, you have one time in the year to choose, but you don’t know what your medications will be for the next year, so it’s a gamble. And if you do have medications, you can’t do the calculations without a computer. When you can compare the costs, it is often the case that it changes. Which you couldn’t know when you picked it, because it just changed. So I can’t figure out what is the best plan, I just suffer financially. It’s not easy for young people either! If you throw our hands up to choose the cheapest or the one with the most coverage, there might be changes.

- Small Group participant

In 2018, 26 percent of Monroe County households were considered Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE), meaning they earned more than the federal poverty level but less than the basic cost of living for the area.

Monroe County households considered to be either under the poverty threshold or ALICE in 2018:

Source: Indiana United Ways and United Way of Central Indiana. 2020. ALICE In Indiana: A Financial Hardship Study. County Information.

My husband was sick, he had a fever and chills. We are responsible and we were very scared to have a lot of debt because we don’t know how much or when we will be able to. We want health insurance that is accessible so that we can pay.

- Small Group Participant

What it seems we are missing is “empowerment.” People always feel as if they are always behind. Part of that is trying to find a physician. How do we empower people to take control of their own healthcare, so that is on hand, and affordable? We are not making our own choices now, because of the complexity of the system. Insurance makes the choices for us.

- Small Group Participant