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OR THE FIRST EIGHT of her
10 years in the United States,
Bergen County resident Diana
Ochoa, 27, made do without
medical coverage. When the University
of Southern Florida graduate, a natural-
ized citizen, needed to see a doctor or
buy medicines for non-urgent matters,
she typically put it off until her annual
return to her native Colombia, where
health care is still relatively cheap and
where, like many, she paid for services
and prescription drugs out of pocket.
The plan wasn’t foolproof. For one
thing, the occasional urgent medical
matter—a severe sun allergy, an upper
respiratory infection—demanded more
immediate attention. Also, despite her
general good health, over the years
Ochoa developed two chronic diseases
identified by doctors in Colombia. The
first was hypothyroidism or underac-tive thyroid, a condition treated with a
hormone-replacement drug. The second condition, hyperprolactinemia, is
a disorder marked by high blood levels
of prolactin, which among other things
induces milk production in women
following childbirth. It is treated with a
prescription drug such as cabergoline,
which is often successful in stabilizing
prolactin levels.
It was time, Ochoa decided, to find a
plan B. At the start of 2014, while working part-time on the waitstaff of a senior
living facility, she applied for Medicaid,
the federal-state insurance program for
people whose low incomes put health
care coverage beyond reach. The prior
year, Governor
Chris Christie had
bucked his GOP
colleagues in other
states and expanded New Jersey’s
F
HEALTH
Obamacare:
Is It Working in NJ?
About 500,000 Jerseyans have health insurance thanks to the
Affordable Care Act, but the cost of coverage is still not in check.
By Wayne J. Guglielmo
IN GOOD HANDS:
Bergen County
resident Diana Ochoa
receives treatment
for several chronic
ailments under New
Jersey’s expanded
Medicaid program.
