I remember when I graduated from college and was shocked to learn that my health insurance was tied to my employer. I have had rheumatoid arthritis since age 15. When I lost that well paid career due to RA years later, I had no health insurance. That lasted for about 10 years. Thank God I had good insurance to help pay for the optimal debulking surgery that diagnosed my cancer. Had I not had insurance, I would have died.
We needed The Affordable Care Act years ago and it's time has come.
The document is over 900 pages long. It is understandable that people and agencies are overwhelmed. Some of my ovarian sisters are scared about some of the outcome based strategies written into the new law that are designed to improve quality of care. I think some doctors are also not sure what this will mean for some patients. Some bad employers have prematurely dropped spousal coverage as of October and these poor people are not able to be covered until January of 2014.
I myself need to shop for a new plan because my insurance decided to cut off my provider. I want my doctor, I want my treatment team and facility so I will shop till I drop to keep them.
The big picture though is that millions of good people will have the ability to see a doctor. The benefits in preventative care and screenings have been ramped up. There will even be a program that will try home based delivery of care by physicians. Mostly, people with pre- existing conditions no longer need to live in fear.
The ACA will take time to be perfected, but this is an historic opportunity for millions of people to have access to much needed screenings and care.
Here are a few resources that will help cancer patients have tools to better select insurance and also have access to treatment protocols that have been created.
Love Denise
