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Another real human being helped by health reform
This video raises a simple question for Governor Romney: Would he keep the provisions which do away with annual and lifetime dollar-limits on coverage for catastrophic illness and injury?
A United Steel Workers video concerning liver transplant patient Travis Turner:
When Travis Turner was 9 months old he was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer and almost died. His father, Craig, is a member of USW Local 7248 in Ohio, and the family had good, union-negotiated health care through work.
But just three months later, while fighting for his life in the intensive care unit, Travis was kicked off his father’s plan because the cost of the baby’s care had reached the $1 million cap set by the insurance company.
Now, at age 7, Travis is a happy, healthy first-grader. And thanks to the Affordable Health Act championed by President Obama, he’s back on his family’s insurance.
It raises a simple question for Governor Romney: Would he keep the provisions which do away with annual and lifetime dollar-limits on coverage for catastrophic illness and injury?
Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate.
View all posts by Harold Pollack
5 thoughts on “Another real human being helped by health reform”
There was a lot of political flack over the campaign video that seemed to be arguing that a man’s wife died because she didn’t have health insurance that would have been offered had the man kept his job.
But this is how important health insurance is. You can argue that people should have to work harder to get it for themselves. You can argue that government involvement is going to lead to longer waits or lesser quality of care. But to deny universal coverage is to argue for large numbers of people not receiving the care they need, often times the care to save their life.
And if some fool goes out in the mountains and gets lost in a blizzard we can mobalize the National Guard spending unlimited fortunes, risking lives until the poor slob is saved but if a kid needs a liver transplant it’s ‘tuff luck sucker’.
And mind you, a million dollars was considered a generous cap. $250K was not uncommon. Which meant that any kid who had spent significant time in NICU ws either uninsurable or one major accident/illness away from being uninsurable.
There is something missing from the story. How did Travis get the care from the time his insurance cap kicked in and the ACA kicked for him?
There was a lot of political flack over the campaign video that seemed to be arguing that a man’s wife died because she didn’t have health insurance that would have been offered had the man kept his job.
But this is how important health insurance is. You can argue that people should have to work harder to get it for themselves. You can argue that government involvement is going to lead to longer waits or lesser quality of care. But to deny universal coverage is to argue for large numbers of people not receiving the care they need, often times the care to save their life.
And if some fool goes out in the mountains and gets lost in a blizzard we can mobalize the National Guard spending unlimited fortunes, risking lives until the poor slob is saved but if a kid needs a liver transplant it’s ‘tuff luck sucker’.
And mind you, a million dollars was considered a generous cap. $250K was not uncommon. Which meant that any kid who had spent significant time in NICU ws either uninsurable or one major accident/illness away from being uninsurable.
There is something missing from the story. How did Travis get the care from the time his insurance cap kicked in and the ACA kicked for him?
That’s kicked IN for him.