Monday, November 4, 2013

Killing me, Sundby, with his Plan

That would be the tune sung to Obamacare's (intended?) consequences by Edie Littlefield Sundby in the Wall Street Journal;
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.
My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.
Following the money;
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. ....
But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October. 
Where the best laid plans are exposed;
So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCS[an]D[iego]. 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.
She has to give up her health insurance, and her doctors too. Which might mean giving up her life.
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. 
Remember Death Panels? That's what Sarah Palin warned would happen.

No comments:

Post a Comment