"Many children in South Texas who need surgery are underinsured and families may delay important procedures because of the economic burden, despite having some coverage," Dr. Ian Mitchell, chief of pediatric surgery at San Antonio's University Health tells the San Antonio Express-News.
"The Fresh Start program will help University Health provide these children the care they need while protecting their bright futures."
Indeed, 20% of children in Texas live in poverty and 13% of children don't have health insurance, per a press release from the nonprofit Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, which works with world-renowned surgeons to provide free, life-changing cosmetic surgery and other medical care to children in need.
But cosmetic surgery isn't always covered by insurance.
"Many difficult cases that require a team of doctors with exceptional skills to perform surgery or related treatments, or many surgeries that grow with the child," says Fresh Start CEO Shari Brasher.
Fresh Start has helped 8,818 children across the US since its 1991 inception, and it's now looking to expand to San Antonio.
Per the press release, University Health has more than 30 locations in San Antonio, so Fresh Start began to expand there "to serve a growing need."
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.