Teen moms stumble through health insurance maze.

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Twenty million U.S. Blacks and Hispanics do not have health insurance. In all, nearly 9 million kids are uninsured.

To bring attention to the crisis, national foundations and organizations have launched the “Covering the Uninsured” campaign this week.

Two of these uninsured, Jessica*, a 15-year-old Manhattan resident; and Yahaira, 16, spoke with CPL at the Harlembased MIC-Women's Health Services at Manhattanville. Yahaira is pregnant with her second child, and she doesn't have health insurance. By the time she leaves the clinic, paperwork will be underway for her to receive Prenatal Care Medical Assistance Program (PCAP) benefits.

I became pregnant in December 2002. I don't live with my parents. I live with my husband and my motherin-law. Whenever I'm sick I always go to the emergency room. They send a bill but I've got to wait until they give me insurance and then I'll take the bill and the insurance to the hospital. Right now I haven't tried to get insurance yet. I've got to do that now. When I was pregnant with my first child I came here and got the [PCAP] insurance, and then they stopped it. So I'm back now for this baby.

It wasn't that easy not to have insurance, because when I was pregnant the first time, I had to do a lot of paperwork to get the insurance. I hope my baby will be insured when it is born. The first time I was pregnant I came to the clinic around four months [into my pregnancy] and they gave me insurance then. [Before that] I didn't know I was pregnant. I used to throw up, but I didn't know I was pregnant because it was my first pregnancy. I came to the clinic and they told me I was pregnant.

I didn't want to go to the doctors, so I waited. I thought I had a fever or something. I was afraid to go because I didn't have the money to pay. My father-in-law told me about MIC and said they could give me a pregnancy test and some insurance.

I didn't go to the doctor because I was afraid that they wouldn't see me because I don't have health insurance. It's not easy. When I was sick, I would just take Tylenol. I wouldn't stand next to somebody who is sick or coughing.

It's better with insurance. If one of my kids is sick, I could go to the doctors without problems.

I got pregnant in July 2002. I started getting real sick, so I came to the clinic and that's when they told me. At the time I wasn't living with my mother, but I did have insurance under her name, but because I wasn't living with her, technically, I did not have insurance. If [you] go into the hospital you have to have proof of it with that card and I didn't have proof.

I didn't mind not having insurance. I never really thought about it. I know you can't be denied help if you need it, so I didn't think they would turn me away. I was referred here from the Department of Health.

I have insurance now. Since I have to care for another person now, I feel much better that I have insurance for my baby and for me. Babies always get sick, so I don't have to worry about paying for doctors. Next week, I'll start coming every week. Now that I have insurance, if something happens I'll just go to the emergency room and I don't have to worry about it and I don't have to pay for it.

They sent me information about the different health insurances and I had to look through it all and pick one. I don't know anything about what makes a good insurance company.

New Yorkers who need health insurance should call (866) HEALTHY-NY to find out about eligibility.

“It's better with insurance. If one of my kids is sick, I could go to the doctors without problems.” �"Yahaira, 16

GRAPH: KIDS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE, 2001 (Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2002 Supplement)