Building Better Health: Waneta's Story

Wanetta BBH

Waneta Timmerman knew she needed expensive surgery. She could feel it, literally in her bones. Standing up all day on the hard floor of her bustling beauty shop in Brighton eventually left Timmerman in so much pain that even long hot baths at the end of the evening couldn’t help. But she had never been able to afford an insurance plan. 

The Affordable Care Act put life-altering surgery within reach.

Timmerman was able to find an affordable Kaiser Permanente plan through the Connect for Health Colorado marketplace, using the help of a hospital-based enrollment specialist. By March, as tens of thousands of Coloradans were rushing to finish their open enrollment, Timmerman was in a wheelchair in her surgeon’s office and learning her degenerative arthritis could be fixed. 

A hip replacement cost her $2,000 out of pocket. Timmerman is now styling hair pain-free, and “everything is going great.”

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