When one young mother delivered her daughter via C-section at Natividad Medical Center in 2006, her physician discovered moderate-size fibroid tumors in her uterus and advised her to have them removed. But Onix Herrera, a working mother with no health insurance, couldn’t afford the $3,000 down payment required for what is considered an elective surgery. Instead she lived for four years as the tumors grew.
Alzheimer’s drugs are often costly and they do not offer a cure. But patients and family members who want to slow a debilitating disease often pay the high prices, even if their insurance doesn’t cover it.
On a Tuesday evening in East Salinas, a rhythmic sound can be heard in the city’s recreation center known as the Bread Box. Students from the Alisal Center for the Fine Arts percussion program are lined up in rows to practice their drumline skills.
No one in Victoria Jimenez’ family has gone to college. The incoming freshman, who will attend Alisal High School in Salinas in the fall, hadn’t really considered college as an option. Her perspective changed this summer, when she attended a one-week camp at California State University, Monterey Bay, run by Girls, Inc. of the Central Coast.