Cristina, a resident of Arizona, is the proud mom of two sons, Aaron and Curtis.

At a young age, Curtis started to show signs of developmental challenges, and he was later diagnosed with Asperger’s and Autism. As a result, Curtis needs to be on daily medications and treatments to help manage his conditions.

To help her son get the prescriptions he needed, Cristina went back to work so she would have insurance coverage. But to Cristina’s surprise, when she went to pick up her son’s medications, the pharmacist told her their insurance plan did not cover the doctor-prescribed treatment, and they would need to either change to a less effective medicine or pay out-of-pocket.

Aaron was incredibly frustrated that their family’s insurance would not cover the treatments his brother needed. He didn’t understand how they could override the doctor’s expertise and make a baseless decision without having met Curtis. Cristina shared, “It took valuable time away from my son being able to start his treatment.”

Both Cristina and Aaron feel like the insurance companies and their affiliated Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) care more about the money they can make than Curtis’ well-being.

Their family joined Voters for Cures and now continually advocates for lawmakers to regulate middlemen on Curtis’ behalf. To learn more about their story, click here.