Debate Magazine

Woman with Stage 4 Cancer Loses Healthplan Because of Obamacare

Posted on the 05 November 2013 by Eowyn @DrEowyn

elections have consequences

When he was lobbying Congress to pass his sweeping healthcare “reform” with the Orwellian Newspeak name of the Affordable Healthcare Act, better known as Obamacare, the POS made many grand promises that turn out to be all lies.

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Note: Americans are discovering Obamacare is anything but affordable. See “Obamacare deductibles a dose of sticker shock,” Oct. 14, 2013.

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One of his promises was that if we like our present healthcare plans, after Obamacare becomes law, we would not lose our plans or our doctors — which, of course, begs the question of why those Americans must then be subjected to Obamacare.

Now, all those millions of Americans who do like our present healthcare plans and our doctors are discovering that — SURPRISE! — Pres. Lucifer had lied. See:

  • “Obamacare disaster: Health insurances cancelling policies of hundreds of thousands,” Oct. 22, 2013.
  • “Elderly Americans in a panic over losing doctors because of Obamacare,” Oct. 25, 2013.
  • “Top U.S. hospitals are opting out of Obamacare,” Nov. 1, 2013.

Edie Sundby, who has Stage 4 gallbladder cancer, is among those Americans who found out the truth about her president and his Obamacare: she is among the hundreds of thousands who received a letter from her health insurance (United Healthcare PPO) that her plan will be terminated.

After fighting her gallbladder cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of just 2%, for nearly seven years, Sundby will now lose her team of primary doctors and oncologists who have been crucial to saving her life. She must now either accept the Obamacare plan and lose her world-class doctors, or pay more for private insurance with an unfamiliar company.

I was wondering before I read her op/ed in the Wall Street Journal, whether Sundby, who lives in southern California, had voted for Obama. Right at the beginning of her op/ed is this sentence: “My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics.”

That sentence tells me Sundby either had voted for Obama or not voted at all.

We all must make time for politics, because politics has to do with literally EVERYTHING in our lives: the air we breathe; the food we eat; the cars and the roads on which we drive; how much money is taken from us, under force of law; the freedom to practice our religion; our healthcare; and more.

Edie Sundby is now discovering that elections have consequences. Too bad those of us who did not vote for the POS and for Democrats, must suffer along with her.

H/t Daily Mail

~Eowyn

Edie and Dale Sundby
Edie Sundby and her husband, Dale.

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 Everyone now is clamoring about Affordable Care Act winners and losers. I am one of the losers.

My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics. 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.

Countless hours searching for non-exchange plans have uncovered nothing
that compares well with my existing coverage. But the greatest source of
frustration is Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act
health-insurance exchange and, by some reports, one of the best such
exchanges in the country. After four weeks of researching plans on the
website, talking directly to government exchange counselors, insurance
companies and medical providers, my insurance broker and I are as
confused as ever. Time is running out and we still don’t have a clue how
to best proceed.

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. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October.

You would think it would be simple to find a health-exchange plan that allows me, living in San Diego, to continue to see my primary oncologist at Stanford University and my primary care doctors at the University of California, San Diego. Not so. UCSD has agreed to accept only one Covered California plan—a very restrictive Anthem EPO Plan. EPO stands for exclusive provider organization, which means the plan has a small network of doctors and facilities and no out-of-network coverage (as in a preferred-provider organization plan) except for emergencies. Stanford accepts an Anthem PPO plan but it is not available for purchase in San Diego (only Anthem HMO and EPO plans are available in San Diego).

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.


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