Dieufort “Keke” Fleurissaint, Mattapan

By Scott Kearnan - A motivational poster adorns one wall in Dieufort "Keke" Fleurissaint's small office space in Mattapan, Mass. Hanged high above a water cooler and coffee table stacked with well-worn magazines, the poster bears the image of a beautiful bald eagle, its wings spread wide as it soars through the sky. Below the eagle’s outstretched talons, a single word is printed boldly:

“Challenges.”

It’s a word with which Fleurissaint is intimately familiar, especially when it comes to attaining affordable health care. Self-employed with his own financial services business, he is adept at consulting with clients on their wealth management, mortgage and insurance needs, and tax services; but owing to his strong influence in the local Haitian community, he has also stepped forward to spread the word about affordable health care, especially as it relates to minority and immigrant populations.

“At church, I would address people from the pulpit,” says Fleurissaint, a member of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) who worked closely with the group to educate community members and gather signatures for Chapter 58 shortly after the law was passed. “I would raise the concerns, ‘How many people do not have health insurance?’ … ‘How many people have had their coverage denied?’ … ‘How many people know others without health insurance?’”

Every time, he says, many hands were raised as a testament to the challenge of finding affordable coverage. He continued to spread the word wherever he could, collecting signatures outside supermarkets, chatting with neighbors at his sons’ high school football games, and even on one of the two local radio shows he hosts for the area’s Haitian community.

Little did Fleurissaint realize that he would soon rely himself on the health care reform for which he advocated so strongly. With his own financial services business slammed by the recent national mortgage crisis, Fleurissaint discovered within the last year that he could no longer afford to keep his family on private insurance.

“My income dropped dramatically,” said Fleurissaint.

So since June of 2008, he has been paying just $29 a month for Commonwealth Care. Fleurissaint said he appreciates that health care reform recognizes options for individuals with fluctuating and sometimes unpredictable income levels.

“Back then [before Chapter 58], if insurance was too expensive they [individuals] would think they could apply for MassHealth. But then MassHealth might look at the income and say, ‘It’s too much… you’re denied.’ Therefore you have to stay without insurance, because you have no alternatives.”

Of course, Fleurissaint hopes that next year will bring better business and a higher income bracket, and he will weigh all the options in determining whether to reapply for Commonwealth Care. But he likes knowing that the opportunity exists to overcome any challenge the market presents, and that he’ll never have to sacrifice his investment in quality, affordable health care.

Plus, he continues to spread the word, talking up the law and its benefits in churches. Now when he asks for a show of hands of those who don’t have insurance, only a few go up.

“I know for sure that the law [Chapter 58] has helped a lot of people in my Haitian community,” he says. “They have more benefits than they were expecting before… it was a great task and a good endeavor that we just had to tackle.”

One more challenge, overcome.