Robert’s Cancer Battle – Story
Late in 2013 as conversations were taking place about universal healthcare I can tell you that I was not paying much attention. All my children had coverage with their employers and so did my husband and I. We were all in good health and so I guess I just did not pay that much attention to it.
March 2014 all that change for me and my family for several reasons. First, my son had decided to leave his job and start his own small business. He immediately enrolled when the Affordable Health Care plan was available because it offered him better options for his family that he could afford. For my husband and I the diagnosis of Stage III Colo-rectal Cancer changed the way we view our coverage. 12 long months of Chemo, Radiation, Surgery and more Surgery left Robert with his insurance being cancelled because he was off work for 12 months.
If not for the Affordable Care Act he would have had a pre-existing condition and I would not have been able to add him to my insurance in 2015. Now as the cancer has returned and the fear of it being repealed I am concerned on where that will leave us. His treatments are $44K every 3 weeks and if we did not have insurance we would have lost everything. I am concerned about reaching lifetime maximums and us having to make a decision about getting him treatment to fight this fight or putting food on the table and keeping a roof over our head.
I’m concerned for my son and his family as well and I do not think that the people who are now in office or any Senator of Congressmen and Congresswoman understands what a family like ours will suffer through if they just wipe it out. It is a shame that all they want to do is get rid of it because it was President Obama that worked so hard to approve it, instead of focusing on what the American people need as a whole.
If they repeal it we will lose everything and that is so wrong in so many ways when your already fighting for your life!
Renee Scott
God’s blessings to you and your family. Have no fear, BE ENCOURAGED! GOD IS WITH US!!
Steve Erickson
Fifteen years ago, I lost my families health care when I lost my job because of complications from a fractured skull that had occurred years earlier. Due to statute of limitations laws, there was no workers compensation benefits for me and despite it being an ‘in the line of duty law enforcement injury’, My employer did not provide my health coverage ounce terminated and Medicaid was not available because I was under one of those government retirement plans that did not allow soc security or Medicare payroll taxes. Over the course of the next several years, we spent our life savings on health insurance premiums and other costs because of pre existing conditions, etc. for me, my wife and our two young boys, to the tune of over $200,000.
Then in 2013, a couple of years after my wife finally found a job that provided family health insurance coverage, our son was diagnosed with a grade three glioma during his senior year of h.s.. He graduated from h.s. and went on to college. He has worked hard pursuing his dreams despite his horrific prognosis, with plans to attend graduate school next year and is carrying a 3.8 gpa despite multiple surgeries after the cancer has returned and being on chemo drugs most of the time he has been in college. When the election results came in last week, the realization that he will possibly not be able to stay on our insurance after graduating from undergrad school this coming May
or the insurance rates being way to expensive for us to afford sent a shock wave through a household that is already just trying to hang on financially and otherwise. With anything less than the basic protections that the ACA provides is a nightmare on top of an already existing nightmare for our family and so many families that are dealing with serious pre existing conditions. Why would Americans let that happen to their fellow Americans? Please pass this story onto president elect Trump. I can’t believe we are going to let this happen.
Lauren
Thank you for your story! A lot of people don’t realize how cancer can affect a family! A year ago my neighbors 8 year child was diagnosed with leukemia. Both parents were employed with health insurance from their workplace. The mother had to quit her job to take care of their child full-time and the fathers health insurance company cancelled his policy. But, thank God, they were able to receive help thru Medicaid for medical expenses because their child still needs another year of cancer treatment. I’m a cancer survivor and I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I had full coverage health insurance thru my employer and only had to go through six weeks of treatment, and have been cancer-free ever since. Most people with cancer aren’t so lucky.