A Patient Profile

When Anne Gerber decided to return to school to become a nurse, she didn’t think it would force her to do without healthcare coverage. “I always had health insurance—it was normal for me,” she says. Like many people, Anne had healthcare coverage since she was a child, but when she decided to make this important career change and enter nursing school as an adult returning student, she found herself facing the troubling risk of doing without basic protection for her health—both physically and financially. It was during a time a few years ago when one of her parents had been critically ill that Anne decided she wanted to become a nurse. She left her full-time job as a patient accounts representative in a medical office and enrolled in nursing school. But Anne no longer qualified for the healthcare coverage she had depended upon in her former job. “Privately, I would have had to pay somewhere between $600 and $800 a month for insurance,” she recalls. “So I became one of the ‘working uninsured’ of America, which was very stressful for me.” Then, a friend told her about North Coast Health Ministry.

“When North Coast Health Ministry said I qualified, I was shocked. And what shocked me even more afterward was that I’ve had the best medical care with them that I’ve had anywhere in my life!” Anne’s NCHM coverage lasted through nursing school and until she was fully employed again with medical insurance.

Read More...A Patient Profile

Who are the uninsured?

Our goal here at North Coast Health Ministry is to bring healthcare to the uninsured.  We’ve identified a group in need in our area and are working to provide them with healthcare that is comparable to many of the area’s larger providers.  We are proud of the depth of services we provide.

In addition to our medical role in the community, we work to make the population at large more aware of the problem facing our area’s residents living with no medical insurance.  We want to bring a new face to the uninsured….

"I have been touched by the honesty and vulnerability with which our patients’ describe their problems and tell their stories. Many come to me in desperation and crisis.  The months of symptoms they have ignored due to fear of medical costs.  Many see no other options to improve their situation.  What I have come to realize is that their stories could be the story of anyone, given certain circumstances.  Ironically, several of our patients have been in the health insurance or healthcare industry."

- Philip E. Tomsik, MD, Medical Director