By Scott Kearnan - In 2007, Jessica Kuznick faced the best of times and the worst of times. The 40-year-old mother of a preschooler discovered she was pregnant with her second child. She and her husband were thrilled to be welcoming a new baby to the family.

But the celebration was short-lived. Around the same time, Kuznick’s husband, a software engineer, lost his job when his company downsized. Within one month of learning she was pregnant, Jessica Kuznick joined the ranks of the 46 million uninsured.

“I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be interesting,’” says Kuznick with a chuckle. Today, it’s easy to laugh as she cradles 3-month-old Isabel. But when Kuznick had to find health insurance for her family, the sticker shock of that quest was no laughing matter.

“My choice was to pay $1,200 a month to continue on COBRA. That’s a lot!” She says they would have found a way to come up with the money if that was the only option. Though it would have been painful, Kuznick says she and her husband would not go without insurance because they had a child on the way.

But Kuznick was lucky. She knew she had another choice, having already discovered Commonwealth Care through her work with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), where she was involved in teaching health outreach workshops. Kuznick was surprised that her income level allowed her to take advantage of the program.

“In our part of the country, sometimes even respectable salaries don’t go far,” she says. “If health insurance is going to be $15,000 a year … it made me realize that sometimes the economics of middle class life don’t add up.”
 
Just knowing that she could take advantage of CommCare was a great relief to Kuznick, who was already enduring enough stress in her pregnancy and worried about the threat of mounting medical bills. Considered by doctors to be a high risk pregnancy because of her age, Kuznick needed more frequent ultrasound tests and check-ups with her obstetrician. And, in the final term of her pregnancy, she developed various complications related to her condition: influenza, acid reflux, and severe allergies, which exacerbated her latent asthma and led to breathing trouble.

Kuznick’s problems confined her to bed for the latter portion of the pregnancy, putting her part-time employment on hold and slowing down her husband’s search for new work as he was forced to manage the household and oversee the care of their 4-year-old son.

The situation was so bad that in one week, Kuznick went to two different doctors, the emergency room, and a walk-in clinic. The expenses could have been astronomical, but Kuznick’s coverage under CommCare allowed her to focus her efforts on what really mattered: getting well, and ensuring the health of herself and her baby.

“I felt incredibly well taken care of,” says Kuznick. “I felt the health care system really prioritized pregnant women.”