Investigations with Impact
March 01, 2010
March 2010
by KAREN CARMICHAEL
From AJR, American Journalism Review
Two months after its launch, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund published the story of Benjamin French, a 12-year-old from Michigan who was born without part of his right arm. His family's insurance provider, a Teamsters health plan administered by Blue Cross Blue Shield, had refused to cover his most recent prosthesis because he had reached his lifetime maximum benefit of $30,000. Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow read from the story on the Senate floor during a debate over health care reform.
The following week, the Teamsters health plan said it would cover French's device and raised by $30,000 the cap for others under the same health plan.
"The goal of nonprofit journalism like this is to create impact in the world," Investigative Fund Executive Director Nick Penniman says. "We managed to affect both the debate and one person's life."
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> Click here to access the full article on the AJR website.
For more information on Tides project Huffington Post Investigative Fund, see huffpostfund.org.
