Anna Harris’s Patient Playbook
Access & Navigation
Getting through the door faster. Her moves for jumping the specialist queue — and handling the bill that arrives after the worst day.
The Affordable Care Finder — Free and Low-Cost Care, State by State
In 2011, a North Carolina man who had lost his job — and his health insurance with it — handed a bank teller a note asking for $1, then sat down and waited for the police. He believed prison was his way to health care. “15 years later, we're still having the same conversation.”
“We tied access to healthcare to your employment… We built a system where your ability to access healthcare changes when your life changes, and requires you to become a master negotiator every time you have some sort of life change.”
Her answer while the infrastructure gets fixed: a free guide to free and low-cost care — primary care, dental, hearing, mental health, STI screenings, vision screenings and skin checks — searchable by state, ZIP code, or national programs. “I just want people to get access to healthcare.”
The coverage gap: about 1.2 million uninsured adults in the ten states that haven't expanded Medicaid earn too much for Medicaid but too little for ACA Marketplace subsidies (KFF, July 2026). KFF →
Open the Affordable Care Finder · The $1 bank robbery · The exchange deductibles
Shopping the Exchange for Her Own Family
Anna filmed the Marketplace plans on offer for her family for the coming year. On screen: monthly premiums of $1,400 to $1,690 and deductibles from $15,000 up to $21,200. On the highest — a bronze plan from Health Plan of Nevada, a UnitedHealthcare company — the deductible and the out-of-pocket maximum are the same $21,200: the family pays everything up to that line. At the cheapest premium shown, that's about $16,800 a year in premiums before the deductible is touched.
“This is insane for any American… This is unrealistic for any American. So here's what I would do: use my Affordable Care Finder first.”
By her count, the Finder holds more than 5,000 sources she gathered from across the country. “Send this to one of your friends that's been delaying seeing a doctor or delaying seeing a dentist… You know who those people are.”
Figures as shown in her video: one family's quotes on one state's exchange.
Drug Shortages: Get the Care First, Fight Insurance Later
With 227 drugs in active shortage as of mid-2026, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists — a crisis the American Medical Association calls "an urgent public health crisis and a national security threat" — the medication you need may not be there, and the substitute may not be covered. Her advice: ask your doctor about alternatives, and insist on the clinical standard of care, not the cheapest option. Her script:
"Thanks. I'll be handling the benefits portion of my coverage. My question to you is: what is the clinical best practice for my case?"
Get quality care first — fight insurance later. AMA on drug shortages →
Specialist Booked Out for Months? Six Moves
The cancellation list (often separate from the waitlist), Zocdoc’s soonest-available filter, telemedicine slots, a physician-to-physician call, flagging the referral urgent in the EHR, and Epic’s Fast Pass auto-waitlist.
Anna Harris’s content is independently created and published by her; AbilityForge indexes it as an allied public resource. Figures are hers and her sources’ — each post is linked so you can verify it directly. Nothing here is medical or legal advice.