Emma, Age 10

When Emma was first born my husband worked at Avaya and we had Aetna. They refused to cover her medical formula despite appeals with letters of necessity from her Doctors. My husband changed jobs and second company insurance also refused to cover. When he got job offer at Cisco we finally had employer insurance that covered formula. Now we live in fear every January that the coverage will change and no longer be covered. Our insurance covers us at 80%. Her medical formula runs a little over $1500 month. We pay co insurance of around $270. Her low protein foods run around $300 month. Insurance covers only Cambrooke at 80%. They refuse to cover any other low protein food suppliers like PKU Perspectives. So we pay them 100%. My husband cannot afford to look at any other employment opportunity if we do not have coverage. With no coverage would be looking at around $20k in costs for her formula and food. Photo courtesy of Andrea Burolla Photography.