Corin Denmon has a lot of concerns for Florida and her country, but there is one topic that she puts above the rest.
"Healthcare. I'm voting for anybody that has healthcare on their ballot as a priority," Denmon said.
Healthcare affordability is the cause of a lot of anxiety for voters across the country ahead of an election where the general concept of affordability dominates the conversation.
While the cost of healthcare has been grouped into the conversation with the cost of housing, the cost of groceries, and the cost of gas, among other things, state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, said one thing is very clear to her…
"Absolutely, healthcare is, in fact, on the ballot this year," said Nixon, who is running for U.S. Senate against incumbant Republican Sen. Ashley Moody.
Nixon wants Medicare for All, which would cover care with no premiums, deductibles or copays. (Estimated to cost about $35 trillion over 10 years, it would be funded through new taxes, savings from streamlined administration and negotiated lower healthcare costs.)
"We spend so much money on healthcare, and we have horrible outcomes. And that's because everybody doesn't have healthcare. And people wait till last minute until they can't they can't go without healthcare anymore, and then we see costs that have ballooned," she said. "We need to take the profit out of this, especially if it's costing people's lives."
"Right now, people are going bankrupt. People are dying because they cannot afford healthcare," Nixon said.
According to a 2022 KFF study, 41 percent of Americans have medical debt. One in eight have declared bankruptcy or lost their home due to that debt. And since the study, more than a million people have been added to the ranks of the uninsured, topping out at 26.7 million, according to another KFF study from 2024. That increase was the first since 2019.
Nixon's stance on healthcare is one of the primary reasons Denmon is voting for her.
"She is fighting for healthcare for all of us, which is something I feel strongly that we should have in this country," Denmon said.
Denmon's stance on healthcare comes from a 12-year period, 2010 to 2022, when she didn't have insurance and an undiscovered brain tumor grew, nearly blinding her. That tumor ultimately could have killed her.
Denmon said that in 2021 she and her husband finally qualified for the Affordable Care Act Marketplace insurance. Three years later, doctors found the tumor, and three surgeries later she was on the path to recovery.
"Thank God, we had insurance because I was in the hospital for six weeks," she said.
Denmon's story
Denmon used to have private insurance through her husband's subcontracting job, but in 2010 premiums became too costly. On average, the portion employees paid out of pocket rose 14% or $482, according to a KFF analysis. The study showed that workers, on average, paid nearly $4,000 a year.
Marketplace insurance wasn't an option for the Denmons, because they made too much money to qualify.
They were stuck in a hole, but Denmon wasn't too scared about it at the time.
"At that point in 2010, we're not that old, right? I mean, we're not young spring chickens, but you know we didn't have that much need for healthcare," she said. "If we have to go to the doctor, we'll just pay. … It was cheaper than paying for something monthly that we might or might not use."
Later that year, the Denmons lost a baby. It was traumatic and came with a hospital bill for $46,000. To help cover it, Denmon says they ended up selling their house in a short sale.
"We just couldn't afford it all, and the stress was about to break us," she said.
Denmon said that's when she stopped exercising and began eating more fast food and gained a lot of weight, getting up to 326 pounds.
Denmon recalls multiple incidents where she was either on the floor or in her bathtub, too weak to pick herself up.
"I was stuck in the bathtub the first time for five days because we didn't have money, and I was like, 'If you call 911, we're gonna have a bill, right?' " she said.
On the fifth day, they did call, and they did get a bill.
On another occasion, Denmon got stuck on a toilet. She was able to get to the floor but couldn't get up. Her husband, Brook, brought her a comforter and was able to drag her into the bedroom, where she stayed for 10 days.
"My husband took care of me like I was pretty much an invalid," she said.
Calling 911 racked up a $900 bill.
Still, it wasn't until 2016 that her health troubles really started. That's when Denmon believes the tumor started growing.
She developed narcolepsy and her memory became unreliable.
"I'm driving to Deltona, and I'm in Longwood on I-4, and I literally woke up on I-4 driving," she said. "I attributed it to getting old because I watched my dad falling asleep all the time."
She used to do office work for her husband, answering emails. Proudly, she earned a reputation for replying ASAP. Then, she suddenly stopped. She became forgetful of messages she'd read.
In 2019, she stopped working due to the symptoms.
Her husband had a feeling that something was wrong and tried to set up appointments with a doctor, but without insurance most would not see her.
The enhanced premium tax credit
Denmon and many Americans who were in a similar insurance gap caught a break when the Biden administration upped the marketplace insurance enhanced premium tax credit due to the COVID-19 pandemic
In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act temporarily increased subsidized payments and increased income limits so a household with an income up to 400% of the federal poverty line could qualify.
A KFF analysis shows that subsidized enrollment in the marketplace rose 106% from 2020 to 2024. In Florida, enrollment jumped by 134% since 2020, KFF data shows. Florida became the biggest purchaser of marketplace insurance plans.
Brook was able to finally enroll himself and and his wife.
With their new healthcare insurance plan, they got an appointment with a doctor and eventually an MRI.
"They called us in, and right away they were like, 'This is huge. I've never seen a tumor this big before," Denmon said.
In 2024, she was diagnosed with a frontal lobe meningioma.
"It was affecting all my senses and my memory," she said.
Denmon underwent three surgeries to remove the tumor from behind her eyes and to address additional complications, including cerebral fluid leaking out of her nose.
She never saw the final bill. She knows the first surgery cost about $472,000. Her guess is the entire six-week stay with medications and other surgeries added up to over $1 million.
"If you don't have health insurance, and you can't do that, and your doctors won't see you, what do you do?" she asked.
Looking toward the healthcare future
It's been a long road to recovery for Denmon. She had a lingering, post-surgical pain in her head up until the end of last year.
She's doing better. Since the surgery, she has lost 145 pounds. She attributes the loss to watching what she eats — salads and couscous over fast food.
She keeps active with a newfound love for political activism, which keeps her up and moving, canvassing neighborhoods, knocking on doors and protesting. Denmon is campaigning for those who prioritize healthcare because she's scared she'll be without it again.
"My husband's making money now, and we already got downgraded last year to this year with a worse plan," she said.
Last year, Congress didn't renew the enhanced premium tax credit. Back in January, the cost of ACA plans jumped 20% across the country. And in just a few months, KFF says another 15% median price jump is expected.
The Denmons are afraid that next year they won't be able to afford insurance. That's why politicians like Nixon appeal to Denmon.
"In the universal healthcare model that I am thinking of, they wouldn't have to pay healthcare premium costs," Nixon said.
That's her long-term plan. Nixon's short-term plan, should she get elected, is to reintroduce the enhanced tax credit.
"If we reestablish the funding that was cut, we can demand that these insurance companies drive down their premium costs because it impacted not just the ACA marketplace; it impacted private insurers, too," she said.
Central Florida Public Media reached out to Moody about her policies on healthcare, but she did not respond.
In 2025, Moody voted against extending the tax credit and voted in favor of reducing federal Medicaid spending. Moody's website states that she would push for tougher penalties on healthcare fraudsters.
While trying to prevent or hunt down healthcare criminals does hypothetically benefit the taxpayer, Denmon thinks something more immediate needs to happen. And that's where she's placing her vote.
"I just want to survive," she said. "They've all let us crumble, everybody in power, even the ones that are saying the right things, and I know they have the best of intentions. You're not really fighting, in my opinion, because if you were, I don't think we would be here."
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