Acupuncturist, 40, Uninsured

Interviewed August 2010

(oil on canvas, 40 ins. x 30 ins.)

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At the time of painting, the subject was a partner in a practice founded on the principles of "community acupuncture," making treatment available for all by charging patients on a sliding scale.

After college, the subject’s insurance coverage was intermittent: Insured doing data entry for a hospital; uninsured while working various restaurant jobs in her twenties; insured for a time in her early thirties working as a secretary for a Manhattan law firm.

While insured, she had half of her thyroid removed when a benign tumor was discovered. After moving to California to attend acupuncture school, she found herself once again uninsured. She monitored her thyroid irregularly by seeking out labs that provided affordable blood-work she could pay for out-of-pocket.

In 2006, the subject, back on the East Coast, entered her name in a lottery of 400,000 low-income people vying for 46,000 slots in the PA adultBasic health insurance program. She was accepted in 2010. A year later, in 2011, the program was terminated.

Forty-two thousand people insured on adultBasic, including the subject, lost their health insurance. Another 400,000 uninsured people had been on the waiting list. Then-Governor Tom Corbett was criticized for not negotiating with tax-exempt insurance companies in Pennsylvania to continue funding the adultBasic program.