She’s been a field coordinator in India and spent years working with the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. Now, she’s the executive director of Mission: Restore, an organization that trains medical professionals abroad to provide surgical care to patients in developing countries. Meet Karina, four-month Oscar member.
First off, tell us a little bit about your job.
I recently left my job at the Clinton Global Initiative to run Mission: Restore. It was founded by a surgeon here in New York to train doctors in developing countries. We’re basically giving them the skills and support they need to treat injuries in their own communities. Currently, I’m traveling a lot to Tanzania, which I love. Tanzania has only two reconstructive surgeons in a country of 50 million. So these doctors have no professional network of colleagues to consult. But with technology we can connect Tanzanian surgeons to their colleagues around the world and create an international support network.
What was your health insurance situation before Oscar?
At the Clinton Foundation, we had good health insurance, since it was a big organization. I was automatically signed up for it, and didn’t have to worry.
How did you first connect with Oscar?
It’s a funny story. My whole job has been improving healthcare abroad. Yet I was without insurance for three months. For me, it had been a question of accessibility. When I decided to start working with a small non-profit startup, I was in charge of figuring out my own health insurance, and the process overwhelmed me. I was a team of one—busy doing a million things for my company—and I had no idea where to begin my insurance search. I saw the Oscar ads in the subway and loved them, and the day before the deadline to get health insurance for the year, I frantically called two of my best friends to see what they were doing and they both said they were going to do Oscar. I went online and had insurance in under ten minutes.
What services have you used?
I love my Misfit! I’m totally obsessed with tracking my steps. It’s become the silver lining to living so far from a subway. I almost always get my steps in for the day. I also used “Doctor on Call" and it was amazing. I’d had an infection that wasn’t quite bad enough to drop everything and go to the doctor. But it wasn’t going away, either. I remembered that I had the Oscar app on my phone. A few taps later, and I was on the phone with the doctor. He called me in ten minutes. Literally. And just like that, I had a prescription waiting for me at the pharmacy two blocks from my apartment.
What’s been your experience so far?
I never thought I could be in such a loving relationship with my health insurance company. Not only does the idea of engaging with my insurance no longer give me hives, but I’m also actually excited to log on to my account and tell my friends all about it. Heck, I even did a photo shoot with my Oscar swag on the High Line to try to become an Oscar emoji.
Do you have any plans on how to involve Oscar in how you’re staying healthy this year?
My Misfit! I hit my 10,000 steps daily, and I’m using the money I’m earning to buy books on Amazon. So it turns out, Oscar is helping with my intellectual health as well.
Okay, now tell us a little about this avatar quest…
My good friend Katrina (who signed up for Oscar with me) and I got it in our minds that we would make the perfect Oscar Avatars. Though we were certain it was meant to be, we had no idea how one becomes an Oscar Avatar. So we got my photographer roommate to do a photo shoot with us to demonstrate for Oscar what great Avatars we would make. We went all out, posed like emojis, brought our Oscar swag. Now, we are just waiting and hoping that our dream will come true…
Ta-daa!
