include quite obviously my wife’s cancer and her being a female. Mine includes allergies, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a host of minor ailments over 7+ decades of living.
Right now all of that is irrelevant to us, and not just because of the ACA.
Our healthcare, which probably qualifies as a “Cadillac Plan,” comes through my wife’s employment in the federal government.
Specifically, she is a legislative branch employee, although the health care plans are apparently the same for executive and legislative branch (and probably Judicial as well, although I do not know) employees. I say that extrapolating from the fact that she was able to get donated leave from friends in the executive branch.
I have read, as I am sure others have as well, that the Congress is exempting themselves from the hits they are doing to many people on pre-existing conditions.
Here’s what I don’t know. Does that apply only to the electeds, or does that protection extend to their employees as well? Might they make a difference based on the branch in which a federal employee works?
Let’s go beyond preexisting conditions to the idea of lifetime caps. If that prohibition is removed, how do we or any other family with a member with cancer, afford the continued treatment?
On the other hand, while I would be delighted were our health insurance to continue as it is, I would feel it is patently unfair that we are able to have such a generous plan funded in part by federal taxes while most people lose the lesser coverage they currently have.
Our Congressman is Don Beyer, and we know he will vote against this latest abomination, but he is a Democrat, so that does not matter to Ryan and company and to the folks in the White House
We have seen American attitudes change on gay marriage as more and more people have family members or friends who are gay.
Might not a similar impact be had on health care with those with family members or friends who will be devastated by the proposed changes to ACA?
We will see if the Republicans actually have the votes tomorrow.
But all of us should be considering the impacts upon
- us and our families
- our close friends
- the millions of others who will be hurt by this
all so that Republicans can give huge tax cuts to the already wealthy.
That is disgusting.
I know that the cuts to Medicaid are going to have a huge impact upon schools dealing with kids with various kinds of handicaps. I have seen little discussion of this.
Others can be more articulate on this than can I. I can only speak from our somewhat limited experience.
What I can say is that absent the kind of health care we do have, my wife would not have had her stem cell transplant, would not be able to go back into chemo and radiation treatment when necessary, and her cancer might well have come back full bore.
And me? I’d probably be dead, because I probably would never have gone to have my doctor check out why my BP was being so hard to control, , my condition would not have been accurately detected and I would not so quickly have had it corrected by outpatient surgery (I went home that afternoon) so when I shoveled snow my aortic aneurysm would have burst and I would have fallen where I was with the shovel next to me.
There is something very immoral going on.