More than 1.2 million hardworking Floridians would be eligible to gain access to quality healthcare if Medicaid were expanded. In Hillsborough County, 127,550 residents could benefit. Here is one of those stories. Tiffany Turpin, South Tampa Health and Rehab, Restorative Aid



Tiffany’s job at South Tampa Health and Rehabilitation center is to help nursing home patients restore their abilities to do day-to-day activities after an accident, surgery or stroke. She also works as a CNA one night a week in the nursing home.



She sometimes has 20 patients to look after, which is difficult for an able-bodied person, but Tiffany was recently diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease which usually causes extreme joint pain and chronic swelling in the fingers, hands, wrists, and knees.



As a single mother, Tiffany cannot afford to pay for her employers’ health insurance plan and raise her 10 year-old son. She earns too much to qualify under Florida’s current Medicaid policies so she is just one of the many hard-working Floridians with life-threatening illnesses who use the emergency room and community clinics to stabilize their symptoms.



She says, “I have a small child and bills to pay. If it’s a matter of feeding my child and putting a roof over our head, I’ll go without insurance.”



Diagnosing Lupus disease requires a series of costly tests because Lupus symptoms often mimic other diseases. Once diagnosed, the disease can be managed through medications to decrease the immune system’s response and pain management treatments. For patients without health insurance, paying for tests to get diagnosed and get adequate treatment is nearly impossible.



“It was probably a year that I had joint pain and fatigue before I got tested,” Tiffany explains. “My toes and fingers would swell and then I got a rash on my face and hand. I didn’t know what it was.”



Tiffany went to a walk-in clinic, which gave her a prescription to get a blood test, which she paid $400 out of pocket. She was diagnosed with Lupus.



“The clinic treated me with prednisone and pain medication, but I needed to see a rheumatologist. If I could get health insurance and see a rheumatologist I wouldn’t have to be on prednisone. There is actual medicine to treat Lupus, but I don’t have the means. Rheumatologists are very expensive if you don’t have health insurance.” So far, Tiffany has been able to keep her job, but she has missed a lot of work, which has caused financial hardship.



“Some days I’m not worth a damn, especially when the weather changes,” she says. “I’ve had to do voluntary repossession on my car because I missed so much work. My job is really understanding, but I have a son to support. Sometimes I wonder, should I cut my hours and work part-time so I have health insurance?”



Recently, Tiffany traveled to Tallahassee with 1199SEIU members to lobby her legislators to support Medicaid expansion.



It’s this experience of working with other healthcare workers and her son’s inspiration that keeps Tiffany’s outlook positive.



“I look at my son every day and that keeps me hopeful. The possibility of Medicaid expansion keeps me hopeful. I really don’t know if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I have to keep going. One day, I hope to get treated properly.”