Posted on 11/04/2013 3:53:01 PM PST by grundle
The rollout of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has been full of snafus and politics. Less discussed are the individual people whose coverage is changing, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
Edith Littlefield Sundby counts herself among those whose coverage is taking a hit. She wrote about her case in a powerful op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
In her early 60s, Sundby suffers from stage 4 gallbladder cancer. According to her op-ed, less than 2 percent of people with stage 4 gallbladder cancer survive five years after diagnosis. She's had it for seven years.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579171710423780446
You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor
I had great cancer doctors and health insurance.My plan was cancelled. Now I worry how long I'll live.
By Edie Littlefield Sundby
Nov. 3, 2013
For almost seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been canceled effective Dec. 31.
Two things have been essential in my fight to survive stage-4 cancer. The first are doctors and health teams in California and Texas: at the medical center of the University of California, San Diego, and its Moores Cancer Center; Stanford University's Cancer Institute; and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The second element essential to my fight is a United Healthcare PPO (preferred provider organization) health-insurance policy.
Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers.
But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market.
So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCSD. Stanford has kept me alive—but UCSD has provided emergency and local treatment support during wretched periods of this disease, and it is where my primary-care doctors are.
Before the Affordable Care Act, health-insurance policies could not be sold across state lines; now policies sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges may not be offered across county lines.
What happened to the president's promise, "You can keep your health plan"? Or to the promise that "You can keep your doctor"? Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a world-class physician.
For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people's ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that's a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that's the point.
Just the first in a long line of millions...
But hey, this woman is OBVIOUSLY a racist, crazy, and quite possibly even an evil Christian! (per the mainstream media)
Selfish woman. She should be willing to give up her healthcare....and yes, even her life so that others may have healthcare. (Is a tag needed?)
The fact that United Health is pulling out of the market doesn’t change the fact that she paid her premiums over the years. Obamacare or not, this is wrong on the insurance company’s part.
If you like your cancer, you can keep your cancer - period.
[The choice between embracing the sometimes painful truth (the death panels) or the blissful ignorance of illusion (You can keep your current plan, your doctor, and save up to $2,000.00 a year)].
Yep - one of those bad-apple cancer survivors.
Now we know what Obama meant when he boasted “I’m really good at killing people.”
An insurance company is obligated to continue to cover you in perpetuity merely because you paid for your current coverage?
How come I have come across an article whose coverage is changing for the better? Surely one of the six who signed up on the first day could tell us.
The same thing is true for Anthem customers in California, they only have coverage at specialty hospitals who happen to be in their county. That means if you live in suburban Los Angeles and your child gets cancer you don't have any insurance to take them to Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, or Cedars Sinai Hospital.
The damage this kind of limitation on care will cause to families and the hospitals is hard to fathom. All of this kind of case results in huge medical bills, which very few families can afford, and the research hospitals themselves cannot afford to provide much uninsured care.
The cost of this kind of case is way more than the cost of the typical uninsured visit to an emergency room, and these cases are what insurance should really be for. What good is an insurance policy that has a $10,000 deductible which won't pay for the kind of care you'll need if you get sick enough to get past the deductible?
0bama is a liar ... when (not if) the first patient kicked off his insurance because of 0bamacare dies due to lack of treatment or improper treatment ... then 0bama will also be a murderer.
Hmmmm ....
Liar and murderer?
I’ve heard that description before ...
I think there was a movie called “John Q” about a guy who took revenge against a hospital for failing his family’s healthcare. How fitting it will be when such reprisals take place against those who try to hold power over our lives and deaths via healthcare.
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