Cancer patient could not get coverage before 'Obamacare'

Associated Press ^ | Aug 20, 2016 10:38 AM EDT | Carla K. Johnson

[Olog-hai]

Health care will be on Rebecca Esparza’s mind in the voting booth this fall.

The two-time cancer survivor from Corpus Christi, Texas, says repealing the Affordable Care Act could make her uninsurable. The health law protects people with pre-existing medical conditions from being denied coverage. …

[SaraJohnson]

Trump said he supports health care or everyone. That includes those with pre-existing conditions.

[SaraJohnson]

Exactly.

[freeandfreezing]

It was figured, correctly, that if you could work, you were well enough off that it was a feasible risk to cover both you and yours, with some mild restrictions and delays.

Correct, and there was also an incentive for the employer to pay a bit extra to be freed from the problems that would occur if a new employee was rejected by the employer's insurer. Who would want to go to all the effort to hire someone and then have the headache of not being able to include them in the benefit package you promised as a part of their employment offer?

So the insurance providers offered what their customers, the employers, wanted.

That said, insurance companies often used excuse of a small group and its risk profile to enhance their profit margin, since competing insurers could indirectly coordinate their pricing through risk profiles - even though in reality their loss rate was dependent on their overall pool, not any particular small group. But the story that people with preexisting conditions can't get insurance is endlessly repeated - without mentioning that preexisting conditions don't matter for just about anyone with a job and job related health insurance.

[Hot Tabasco]

Not for individual plans.

<>That's not quite accurate either......

HIPAA Eligibility Criteria for Individual Coverage

[luckystarmom]

I don’t mind paying more for insurance if you have problems. However, what good is insurance if they drop you when you get sick.

I always thought it would have been cheaper just to let people write off health premiums off their taxes.

Low income people already qualify for medicaid, so we are talking about people that pay taxes.

I think having more private options would have been better. I also like health savings accounts.

[Hot Tabasco]

I apologize if I appear to be argumentative, that was not my intent.

But here is my observation: On virtually every .gov website that promotes the ACA, when it comes to "pre-existing conditions", they boast that the ACA has successfully addressed and eliminated pre-existing conditions via the Obamacare when that has been proven to be categorically false.

The HIPAA of 1996 was responsible for it all and now the Department of Propaganda under Obama is taking credit for it..........

And that's all I have to say about that.........Thanks for listening.

[Kickass Conservative]

Right now our Doctor Visits have a $25 Co-Pay.

Emergency Room is $100 Co Pay and Hospitalization is $300.

Prescription Co-Pays average about $20 each Per Month because most of our stuff is through Mail Order.

So far, no Emergency Room Visits and I managed to stay out of the Hospital last year by the skin of my Teeth when my Immune System took a dump. Lots of Dr. Visits though. #;^)

It sure adds up...

[arthurus]

So liberals are rescuing society with Obamacare? I don’t think so. The government has pretty much pushed the churches out of the field by rules and by teaching in the schools that religion is not to be considered. It is emptying the churches and the church treasuries.

[semimojo]

I apologize if I appear to be argumentative, that was not my intent.

Likewise. Just two points and I'll let it go.

The HIPAA guarantee applied only to "HIPAA eligible" people (the definition is complex), which excluded many.

Even so, it didn't mandate that private insurers issue coverage, only that each state had to have some sort of high risk program. In many states the waiting lists were years long and/or the insurance excluded so much as to make it nearly useless - not to mention the high cost.

My main point is that the prohibition on medical underwriting in the ACA is a very real change and a very big deal to the insurance industry. There really was a problem.

Sorry for the delayed response BTW. I'm traveling and in a distant time zone.

[browniexyz]

Trump should and he should remind them that Paul Ryan had it in his power to defund Obamacare completely, including the MEDIA BRIBERY provision and did not. All the Congress critters need to be voted out so we can get some fresh resolve in DC.