What about a child diagnosed with diabetes or one who ran a bout with cancer at five years old? What about a girl with a heart condition from a birth defect that requires a stint?
All of these people (now grown) are not ‘disabled’ in the traditional sense. The grow up, try to go to school or work, but can’t get insured because of things that were inflicted on them as children.
If there’s a gap in my son’s insurance, the great state of Texas said that he could join the state insurance while he looked for work...
if he paid $3000 a MONTH.
Not a year. A MONTH. I called twice and made sure that I heard them correctly.
A healthy 19 year old would have to pay $3000 a MONTH to keep continuous coverage. Without a job.
Because he has a ‘preexisting condition’. A condition that wasn’t anybody’s fault. It’s not caused by smoking or eating wrong. It’s an autoimmune disease.
Trust me, diagnosed at 9 years old, he wasn’t waiting to get sick to get health insurance.
He’s not sick enough to get disability, but if he doesn’t get a shot every four hours, he dies.
He’s the most optimistic human being that I’ve ever met. The ONLY thing that I’ve seen him get depressed enough to blow his brains out over is the impossible task of maintaining health insurance.
Obamacare isn’t the answer, but we can’t keep ignoring the problem. We can’t assume that it’s a simple matter of ‘get a job’.
This forum is the most pro-life forum out there, but once my partially disabled son hits 18, y’all want to throw him to the wolves. Tell him to go figure out a puzzle that’s impossible to figure out. The deck is stacked in such a way that kids with lifetime problems and the working poor have no hope.
The preexisting issue is a REAL problem.
I’m voting for Romney and repeal of Obamacare - even though I’m terrified for my son. I’m doing it because I truly believe that my son’s best hope is a thriving economy. I believe that Obamacare is MUCH worse for everyone - including my son.
I’m libertarian enough to want the gov’t out of the problem-solving business, but we’ve got a LOT of people who wouldn’t have survived childhood illnesses just 60 years ago that keep on ticking.
The natural order has been disrupted by modern medicine and our economy has not caught up.
There are no easy, pat solutions, but the solution is out there and I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve the gub'mint.
Marie,
I sympathize with your issue. As you stated, Obamacare isn’t the answer... but we do need a solution. Personally, I would rather each state set up a direct healthcare-welfare program where their 5-10% chronically-ill uninsured could simply be taken care of by the government paying into a high-risk pool than see what has been done to us under Obamacare. It would be much more efficient in terms of stream-lining the system and much more targeted in getting care for those who truly need it and can’t afford it. In the end, it would save money over the bureaucratic approach we take to every government solution today.
May God bless you and your family.