“The first child is the one that pays the most”: How one family carved out Medicaid coverage for a rare treatment

Gabe Nolasco makes a spider web gesture, mimicking his favorite superhero, Spider-Man. In his left hand, he holds onto Thymie, an orange plush thymus, in the yard in front of the Ronald McDonald House at Cook's Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth on Dec. 2, 2023. Gabe Nolasco, 4, is currently recovering from a thymus transplant as treatment for his congenital athymia. (Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune)

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Driving onto Interstate 35, Eric and Chelsy Nolasco left their home feeling more optimistic than they had in years — their son would finally get the lifesaving surgery he needed to have a functioning immune system, to fight infections, to stay alive.