“My first lesson in how lack of health care access can harm was when I went to Haiti for medical mission trips. I remember helping during an accident where two motorcyclists were left gravely injured, my medical team tried to help as much as they could with their supplies and even used their own clothing to stop the bleeding. Once the ambulance came, all that was supplied was a single board. We found out that the two men didn’t make it that evening and I cried at our team meeting.
I was naive and thought only impoverished countries had grave issues with health care. In the United States, we are so lucky to have an abundance of medications and options. However, Right Care Boston opened my mind to the unfairness when it comes to overpriced medication like insulin. Hearing the parents of Alec [Smith] and Anatavia [Worsham] speak about their actions for the Sanofi protest left me empowered. These parents were bringing their children’s ashes to Sanofi and protesting so that no one else would have to ration their insulin.
No one should be rationing their insulin due to overpricing. Organizations from the pharmaceutical companies to hospitals should be striving towards helping patients, NOT just making a profit. That is why it is such a honor to intern for Right Care Boston. We are stronger together. I hope to one day live to see improvements in health care from Haiti to the United States.”
Welcome to “Humans of Right Care,” our new blog series inspired by the photojournalism project, Humans of New York. We want our members to be able to tell their stories about why they fight for right care, and get to know each other through these stories. We spend so much time working on campaigns to help others, but we can’t forget that all of us are people with our own stories of self. Let’s take some time to share them!
“What was the moment when you realized that greed and dysfunction in the health care system was a serious problem? What was the moment you decided to fight back? Are you hopeful things can change? If so, where does this hope come from?”
These are the questions that inspired Alicia Tran, public health student and RCA social media intern, to write her own Humans of Right Care (see below). If you want to tell your own story in pictures and words, to be published on the RCA site and social media, email organize@rightcarealliance.org for more details.