Recently, I wrote about my experience with health insurance and my concerns about how the laws in the US may change. As I wrote previously, a lot can go wrong with getting and maintaining health insurance in the US. My concerns mostly centered around coverage for pre-existing conditions and acquiring coverage that is not provided by an employer because those were the two issues I had thought about the most. However, when I read this article today, I realized I had neglected to mention another very important issue: Obamacare's ban on lifetime coverage limits. The reason why I hadn't thought as much about this issue is simply that I have been very fortunate. I have never been in danger of my health care expenses reaching some arbitrary limit.
Michelle, the mother interviewed in this article, is one of my colleagues. I highly encourage everyone to read her family's story. In a nutshell, her son, who has very complex medical challenges, was born right after the ban on lifetime health insurance coverage limits was enacted. Had they been subjected to lifetime coverage limits, they would have faced ruinous medical expenses. Now, of course, the future of all of Obamacare's provisions is very uncertain, including the ban on lifetime coverage limits.
This is an issue that could potentially affect us all. Life is uncertain. Just as the door is always open for wonderful things to happen for us, so too is the door open for the most difficult of challenges. I think societies can be judged based on how they treat their most vulnerable members. I hope going forward that we will continue to protect those people with complex and expensive medical needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment