A Message From Our Intern

This Post Was Composed by A PHAN Intern, Khadija Hudson:

While waiting in line to pay for prescription medication last August, I was briefly chatting with this petite elderly woman in front of me. She had shoulder length silver hair, a frail frame, beautiful lightly tanned skin and was roughly around 70-75 years old. S he had one of those sweet and caring voices that made me reminisce of my younger years of spending countless time with my nana.

Anyway, on that particular day, as the line reduced and she drew closer to the counter, I observed her dig through her wallet and bulky black bag for money. As she approached the counter to pay for her medications, she gave the pharmacy tech her Medicare card and heard the price that she had to pay, which was a little over $150. Her face froze and once again she began to rummage through her wallet and bag to look for money. She was nearly $50 short.

Almost a year later at my first day as a health care organizer intern, I briefly reviewed the new health care law and noticed how Medicare and Medicaid will face improvements this year. What really caught my eye was how reform will begin to fill in the Medicare Part D donut hole.

Internally, I lit up and thought about the countless senior citizens, like the woman from Rite Aid, who have to struggle to pay for prescription costs because of this donut hole. I thought about how this would make a difference for them and how excited they must be about this legislation. But then I took into consideration my slight ignorance of this reform legislation and how others maybe just as in the dark as I was.

One of my jobs as an intern is to get the word out about health care reform, especially to the communities who will greatly benefit from it. Already looking into the future, I know this will be one of my favorite components of my internship. I know that this reform is revolutionary and important and that educating people about it will be helpful to the bill succeeding and benefiting them. Although currently my brain is a little sluggish (I just finished finals and my freshman year of college), I look forward to creating ideas about how to get this vital information to everyone.

-- Khadija Hudson