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Uninsured working woman shares story
‘I found working people [at the clinic] who were my friends and acquaintances,’ said Andrea Mahone.
YOUNGSTOWN — Andrea Mahone “didn’t think twice” about losing her health-care insurance when she left a good-paying position at Job and Family Services to take another job.
That is, she said, until she found she had hypertension and faced finding a way to pay for treatment and medications that were previously covered by insurance.
Fortunately, she became acquainted with Michael Robinson, regional director of primary care and community outreach operations at Humility of Mary Health Partners, and he steered her to the hospital’s clinic.
“I found out even a working single woman with no children can get affordable health care even when I don’t have any insurance,” she said.
However, at first she had her doubts about whether she would qualify for benefits and what she would find at the clinic.
Mahone, 43, told her story at Friday’s Mahoning Valley Access to Care Network summit. She admitted the whole process was an eye-opener for her.
She had worked 10 years at Job and Family Services, where she earned $48,000 a year as a job developer. At the request of Youngstown City Schools Superintendent Wendy Webb and Mahoning County Justice Center Judge Teresa Dellick, who were concerned about increasing gang violence, she accepted a position as director of Increase the Peace. As such, she is a contract employee of Youngstown City and works part time for Mahoning County. She earns a combined $35,000 a year, but has no health insurance.
Increase the Peace is an organization that works toward reducing gang violence in Youngstown. She has been with the group since November 2005.
Robinson said he invited Mahone to speak to “make sure we don’t put an unjust or unfair face on the uninsured.” Most uninsured people are working, he said.
In introducing her, he said he knows Mahone as a community organizer and a college graduate who is working toward a master’s degree, and as co-anchor of a local youth-oriented television show, “Increase the Peace.”
Mahone, the daughter of Arthur Mahone of Youngstown, is a 1983 graduate of South High School, holds a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communications from Kent State University, and is working on a master’s degree in Christian counseling at Geneva College.
She said she was not familiar with HMHP’s clinic and didn’t know if she was eligible because of her salary.
Mahone said she was surprised by what she found at the clinic. “I found working people who were my friends and acquaintances.”
At first, she admitted she “wasn’t crazy” about going to the clinic. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Also, she said, there is an embarrassment about not having insurance.
“I wondered if there would be a stigma. I had to stand in line. It makes you humble,” she said.
Nonetheless, she found the system worked for her because she had someone to guide her through it. She urged that work continue on establishing the local access-to-care network.
Regarding leaving the security of her position at Job and Family Services, she said it was worth it if “one life has been changed or saved. I love Youngstown and I love children,” she said.
alcorn@vindy.com