For Nora Yerena, co-founder of nonprofit Raíces y Cariño, which provides supportive resources and workshops for families in Watsonville, having Medi-Cal coverage over the past 13 years has been a lifesaver.
Nearly 14 years ago, Yerena’s daughter was born prematurely and initially spent three days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Yerena’s insurance provider at the time told her the company was debating whether it could cover the cost of her infant daughter’s hospital stay, she said. The initial bill had totaled to $252,000, Yerena said, and her daughter still had six more weeks in the ICU.
If Yerena hadn’t registered for Medi-Cal, she and her family would not have been able to afford the necessary care for her daughter that was not covered by her original insurer, she said…