The Conversation No One Wants to Have: How Juno and Snaebjörn Gunnsteinsson Are Bringing Child Disability Insurance to Families

Jordan Epstein and Dr. Snaebjörn (Snae) Gunnsteinsson of Juno

No parent wants to imagine their baby being born premature, needing lifelong medical support, or facing a disability that reshapes what you imagined your family to be. 

But for many families, that “what if” scenario becomes reality overnight. When it does, the emotional toll is only one part of the story. There’s also the financial end. 

That’s where Juno, founded by Dr. Snaebjörn (Snae) Gunnsteinsson and Jordan Epstein, comes in. 

Whenever we set out to write a profile like this, we have this next portion of the story that we might as well recycle with a fill-in-the-blanks. This is where we tell you how parents created a solution that (somehow, appallingly) hadn’t existed. Here it goes! 

Juno is the first company in the United States to offer child disability insurance, a protection that didn’t exist here until they built it. 

Their mission is simple but profound: to make sure parents have support when they need it most, and to help children with disabilities or chronic illnesses reach their full potential.

From Iceland to the NICU: A Personal Spark

Snaebjörn’s story starts in Iceland, where he grew up in a country that sees health care and family support as givens.

After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Yale, he became a university professor in the U.S. While he was busy teaching, life handed his family a challenge that reshaped his worldview.

His sister-in-law gave birth prematurely to a baby weighing just one and a half pounds. The tiny newborn spent four months in the NICU. It was an unimaginably stressful time. However, one thing his family didn’t have to worry about was whether they could afford to take time off work to be with their baby. In Iceland, the government provided financial support so both parents could focus entirely on their son’s fragile first months of life.

That experience stuck with Snaebjörn. When he began preparing to start his own family, he went looking for a way to replicate that safety net in the U.S. He sought an insurance policy that could protect his child and family if the worst happened. To his shock (ahem, but not ours) he found nothing. Nada. Zilch. 

He couldn’t believe that insurance existed for homes, our cars, and even our phones — but not for our children

Turning an Idea Into a Movement

Around that time, Snaebjörn met Jordan Epstein, a seasoned entrepreneur and new father himself. 

Jordan had just welcomed a baby boy. He, too, found himself asking tough questions about why the U.S. falls short in supporting families through health crises. Together, they decided to build something that didn’t yet exist.

In 2019, they founded Juno.

From the beginning, their vision wasn’t just about financial protection. It was also about changing — and, in some cases, igniting — the conversation. 

Families affected by disability often feel emotionally, socially, and financially isolated. By creating child disability insurance, Juno aimed to fill a glaring gap in the American safety net while also making sure parents didn’t have to navigate those challenges alone.

Why Child Disability Insurance Matters

Here’s the truth: no one wants to think about child disability. 

But the statistics make it unavoidable. Roughly one in seven children in the U.S. lives with a developmental disability. Many more face chronic illnesses or unexpected medical conditions. 

For parents, that can mean staggering out-of-pocket costs, lost income from reduced working hours, and years of ongoing therapy, equipment, and support.

The numbers are sobering:

• On average, it costs an additional $17,000 per year to raise a child with disabilities.

• Over a lifetime, the financial burden can reach into the millions.

• Most U.S. families have no safety net to cover these costs beyond limited government programs.

That’s one of the many reasons that Juno is so groundbreaking. By offering a product that gives families financial protection when a child is diagnosed with a disability or critical illness, Juno helps parents focus less on the bills. 

They can free up energy to focus more on what really matters — their child’s care, progress, and (most importantly) their future.

Building a First-of-Its-Kind Product

Launching the first child disability insurance in the U.S. wasn’t simple. 

Juno’s team of parents, professionals, and experts had to build something from the ground up. There was no blueprint. They designed policies that are affordable, accessible, and family-focused. They created benefits that can be used flexibly for therapies, adaptive equipment, or even just covering lost wages while a parent takes time off to care for their child.

The goal wasn’t to replace government programs or traditional health insurance. It was to fill the gaps. 

Health insurance might (might!) cover a hospital stay, but not months of physical therapy afterward. Disability benefits might exist for adults, but not for children. Juno is designed to meet families where those cracks appear.

Shifting a Culture of Silence

Beyond the insurance product itself, Juno is pushing us toward a bigger cultural shift: acknowledging what families go through when raising a child with disabilities.

It’s a conversation many shy away from because it feels too heavy or too personal. But as Snaebjörn and Jordan point out, ignoring the reality doesn’t make it go away. Instead, what it does is leave parents unprepared.

Juno wants to normalize these conversations outside of the doctor’s office. Because when families are equipped with financial protection and community support, they’re not just surviving, they’re thriving.

Looking Ahead

Since 2019, Juno has been growing steadily, powered by a team of like-minded parents and professionals who share one belief. 

This belief is that  every child deserves the chance to reach their full potential, and every parent deserves support along the way.

Juno is the natural extension of both founders’ personal experience and professional training. Their understanding of the systemic gaps and the ripple effects gave them the outline for what Juno would come to be. 

Juno is more than an insurance benefit. It’s a movement to help us all acknowledge the hard conversations we’d rather avoid, and transform the toughest struggles into a movement for protection, dignity, and hope. 

At Carter House Copy, we never tire of founders like Snaebjorn and Jordan. We love hearing stories of parents donning their invisible superhero cape (even though we see it) to change the world for our families, and our children. If you have a story like Juno’s, we’d love to help you tell it.