Uncared For

With the U.S. being the most dangerous high-income nation for childbirth, postpartum is a critical time for new mothers to have continuous, uninterrupted healthcare. Most of the country has extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months, but two states, Arkansas and Wisconsin, have yet to extend coverage – putting the lives of thousands of women at risk. In this episode, Arkansas...

About half of people with mental illness aren’t able to access treatment – and it's not just because the U.S. is facing a provider shortage. Health insurance networks often create barriers to mental health care, rather than making it more accessible. Just ask Berkeley-based therapist Kendra F. Dunlap, who stopped taking insurance due to low reimbursements, coding errors, and endless paperwork. Thi...

Rural healthcare is in crisis. Nearly 200 rural hospitals across the country have closed in the past two decades, and many more are on the brink. In this episode, we’re zeroing in on the state with the lowest-ranking health care system in the nation: Mississippi. With help from Dr. Kimberly Sanford, an OB/GYN, and Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi's State Health Officer, we’ll uncover what rural healt...

Nearly one in five people report that they or a family member have been denied coverage for a service that their own doctor recommended. For cancer patients like Kay Hsu, those denials aren’t just about money – they’re about survival. When her insurance company denied a life-saving scan, Kay fought to get the care she needed and became an advocate along the way. In this episode, we’ll break down w...

Four in ten people in the United States have medical debt. It's something many of us deal with every day – by avoiding bills, paying with our credit cards, even crowdfunding to cover costs. Whether you have a chronic illness, need an expensive treatment, or are caring for a loved one, debt unfortunately seems to be unavoidable in our system. In this episode, we break all this down with KFF Health...

When your loved one is sick, all you want is to make the pain go away. But for far too many Americans, finding – and paying – for healthcare is when the real pain begins. From medical debt to insurance denials to rural hospital closures, host SuChin Pak is taking a hard look at the many ways our system is failing us. Season 3 of Uncared For from Lemonada Media and The Commonwealth Fund. Coming Aug...

A request from the Uncared For team: Tell us about your experience with medical debt or struggles to find a therapist. Record a voice message at speakpipe.com/UncaredFor or send it to uncaredfor@lemonadamedia.com We’ll listen to every message sent in, and some might become part of our upcoming season. Thanks! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does the upcoming Trump presidency mean for the care economy and the over 105 million family caregivers in our country? In this post-election bonus episode, caregiving expert and policy advocate Ai-jen Poo returns to tell us what challenges lay ahead for families and care workers, and how we can keep fighting for a better system that allows us to truly show up for care. This season of Uncared...

In this special bonus episode, host SuChin Pak talks with health policy expert Julie Rovner about the most pressing health care issues on the minds of voters this election – from abortion to medical debt to long-term care. And Julie explains why, in the 38 years she’s been covering healthcare and Capitol Hill, the 2024 election is different from any other she’s seen.  Find Julie Rovner’s work at k...

For years, Kim Moy cared for her kids and husband, while helping to care for her parents – an experience she describes as being in a “pressure cooker.” Being a caregiver to any loved one can be emotionally draining, but caring for a spouse can be a whole new level of lonely. In our final conversation of the season, Kim talks about the tradeoffs of being a spousal caregiver, grieving the loss of so...

  How can a family caregiver look after her loved ones and herself while navigating a broken healthcare system? Renee Hanania has been advocating for her son Branden to receive care for his disability under Medicaid, piecing together a “care village” for him and his complex needs. All the while, she’s also been battling her own health concern: stage four breast cancer.  Keep up with Renee and Bran...

One in six Americans is over age 65, and that number is only going to climb in the next few decades. So how can we collectively prepare for this elder boom? Ai-jen Poo is president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and she thinks this is our golden opportunity to finally give caregivers their due. We hear about why we need to expand Medicaid access, improve job conditions for care workers...

A big chunk of family caregivers in this country are part of the “sandwich generation” – people caring for young children and aging parents at the same time. Robert Ingenito was one of them. After caring for his dad and raising his young daughter while working, Robert came to a breaking point. He decided to move his dad to an assisted living facility. It wasn’t an easy decision, and it’s one he st...

As someone living with HIV, Vince Crisostomo couldn’t imagine aging past thirty, let alone getting old enough to care for his parents. But when the time came to look after them, Vince embraced it, especially after years of caregiving for his community during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He helped his parents move to an assisted living center and managed their care, this time during a different global he...

When Jessica Guthrie became a caregiver at age 26, her life turned upside down. Her career, friendships, and love life went on the back burner as she prioritized caring for her mom, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Over nine years of caregiving, she’s faced burnout, medical racism, and the isolation of doing it all alone. But despite the challenges, Jessica finds power in the small moments she still h...

Poet and artist Yosimar Reyes moved home to take care of his grandmother during the pandemic. Sometimes he cries in his car from the stress and pressure of caregiving. But he also knows how lost he’d be without her. In this beautiful and honest conversation, Yosimar shares how he supports his 90-year-old grandmother – financially, mentally, and emotionally. Learn more about Yosimar Reyes on his we...

When you’re caring for an aging parent, you want the best care possible. But what does that care cost? And who pays for it? AARP’s caregiving expert Amy Goyer struggled financially to give her parents the best care possible and even ended up filing for bankruptcy. Despite this, Amy looks back on the joy of caregiving and celebrating the wins. AARP has financial and legal resources for caregivers,...

Roughly 42 million Americans are caregivers for an older loved one. It's work that is exhausting, gratifying, and lonely all at once. In Season 2 of Uncared For, host SuChin Pak talks to family caregivers about how they do it - how they balance their careers, kids, navigating our healthcare system and trying to stay sane - with the challenge of caring for our elders. From Lemonada Media and The Co...

Why are millions of us – kids included – losing Medicaid coverage, oftentimes by accident? And how can we get it back? We’ll answer these questions with Medicaid expert Joan Alker, and hear Litha’s story – an Arkansas resident who lost coverage for five months, all while coping with life-threatening kidney failure.   Resources: For research and articles from Georgetown University’s Center for Chil...

Insurance plays a big role in deciding the kind of health care we receive in this country – and how much it’ll cost us. Today, we’re speaking with ProPublica reporter Maya Miller about wrongful insurance denials and knowing your rights as a patient.   Resources: Read Maya and other ProPublica reporters’ coverage of insurance denials here: UnitedHealthcare tried to deny coverage to a chronically il...

One year after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, we sit down with two women working in the reproductive rights space to talk about what has changed, and what’s still to come.    Resources: Learn more about the Roots Community Birth Center: https://www.rootsbirthcenter.com/  Read research from RHITES: https://www.rhites.org/  Looking for reproductive legal...

In our last episode, we return stateside to see how the Minneapolis-based Roots Community Birth Center is reimagining maternal care by prioritizing strong relationships and culturally centered care. We also learn about how midwives were once the go-to providers in American maternal care, but eventually became obsolete when doctors entered the picture. So what can we do to bring them back? And what...

This week, we head to Costa Rica, the final destination on our maternal health “world tour,” where we explore the country’s unique community-based model of care. We’ll travel into the mountains with a community health worker to check up on a pregnant woman, and then head to the western coast, where we meet a doctor providing care to a small fishing village. Along the way, we’ll learn how the count...

This week, we travel east to the Netherlands. Here, midwives and “kraamzorgs,” or postnatal maternity aides, help parents during every step of the pregnancy journey. We’ll meet expecting parents trying out a new type of group-based care, hear from an American journalist about the the hands-on postpartum support she received in her own home, and meet a midwife prioritizing maternal care for undocum...

On our first stop in the “healthcare world tour,” we travel to Germany, where midwives are a legal right, childcare is subsidized, and parents are reimbursed for childcare costs. We’ll shadow a midwife on a home visit to newborn twins and their parents, and meet an American mom who left the U.S. to reap the German benefits. But is it too good to be true? We’ll learn what challenges midwives are up...