No "Safety Net" for Teens

We’re closing pages for the November issue. Presses roll on the 14th. A remarkable young woman wrote the cover story, “My American Dream,” the struggles of an undocumented immigrant and her extraordinary achievement, a scholarship to Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles.

The health care debate in Congress and across the country (more accurately, called, the ugly fight!) told from a teen’s perspective will blow you away. If you ask a teenager, “What’s your health insurance”? the response is, “ask my mom.” Well, 16-year-old Serli Portalogu takes the reader through her journey of health insurance, on and off for the past 13 years. She clearly describes being part of Healthy Families, a healthcare plan subsidized by the state of California for minors, the family’s years with Kaiser Permanente, the paperwork and financial challenges to have access to care and the lack of a “safety net” when her family doesn’t have health coverage.