When Jamie was 8 years old, he had a relatively minor medical procedure. During the procedure, he lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. Unfortunately, because prior to 1992 donated blood was not tested for Hepatitis C, the blood he received was contaminated and he contracted Hepatitis C. He is one of three million to four million Americans who have this illness, although as many as 75% do not have symptoms, so they are unaware they are infected. Jamie discovered that he had Hepatitis C during a routine physical. He had health insurance through his employer, a cell phone company where he served as a call center employee. Shortly after the diagnosis, he lost his job and has not found a new position. He currently has health insurance through Medicaid. In 2014, Jamie was 60 and living in Indiana and looking for work. He went to the doctor because he was feeling tired and nauseated and had noticed that his skin looked a little yellow. The doctor told him that he had developed chronic Hepatitis C, meaning the virus that had been quietly present all those years was now attacking his liver. If not treated soon, he would need a liver transplant. A new treatment that has recently become available for Hepatitis C allows it to be fully cured for the first time. While the treatment is amazing, it is very expensive generally it costs somewhere between $55,000 and $90,000. When Jamie's doctor submitted his information to Medicaid, he found out that Indiana's Medicaid program refused to pay the cost of this treatment. Even though all state Medicaid programs get a discount of 23% off the cost of the medication, Indiana argued that it was still too expensive for them to provide this treatment to everyone who might need it. Indiana Medicaid said that they would only pay if Jamie had significant liver damage. Basically, Jamie must get sicker to be eligible for the treatment, even though he is already so sick that he is unable to look for work.