 | 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.
While working part-time at MetroHealth Medical Center and attending school early last year, Anne volunteered to have an ultrasound performed on herself as a training demonstration. The test revealed she had gallstones! When Anne took the test results to Dr. Philip Tomsik, her primary care physician at NCHM, he arranged for a surgeon at Fairview Hospital to perform the surgery to remove her gallstones. “If I hadn’t found out about the gallstones and had that surgery scheduled through Dr. Tomsik, I don’t know what would have happened,” says Anne. “And I don’t know what I would have done without NCHM.” | 
above: NCHM Patient, Anne Gerber with Medical Director, Philip Tomsik, M.D.
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Anne graduated from nursing school in December 2006, and this year started her career as an emergency room nurse at Fairview Hospital. She’s the type of person who gives back to the community, and now volunteers at NCHM. She’s always felt welcome there. “It was like coming in to hang out with my friends,” Anne says with a smile. “Every time I needed something, they were there for me.” (Written by Matt McManus, Senior Writer United Way of Greater Cleveland. Used with permission.) 
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