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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObamacare saved my family from financial ruin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamacare-saved-my-family-from-financial-ruin/2013/10/08/2b4c03c6-2f6e-11e3-bbed-a8a60c601153_story.htmlObamacare saved my family from financial ruin
By Janine Urbaniak Reid
House Speaker John Boehner and his tea party friends shut down the U.S. government because of people like me. I am the mother of an insurance hog, someone who could have blown through his lifetime limit of health coverage by the time he was 14. My son has managed to survive despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, and he wears his preexisting condition like a Super Bowl ring.
Mason, now 16, was probably born with his brain tumor. We discovered it six years ago. Biopsies showed a slow-growing mass, which was the good news. The bad news was that the tumor could not be removed because it had grown around essential structures in his brain. Under the care of some of the countrys finest specialists, Mason had frequent scans. There was little we could do between tests but hope for the best. Like other children his age, Mason played basketball, argued with his siblings and avoided cleaning his bedroom. He managed to undergo chemotherapy for eight months without getting too sick. He insisted on finding ways to laugh, saying things like: I have brain cancer. Whats your problem? It was an uneasy peace until the tumor ruptured in December 2010, three years after his initial diagnosis, and Mason suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
Mason spent most of eighth grade in the hospital. In the six months he was hospitalized, he spent 65 days in the pediatric intensive care unit. He underwent four brain surgeries. Halfway through his hospitalization, the Affordable Care Act was passed, alleviating lifetime limits on coverage and saving us from the financial abyss. Mason moved to a rehabilitation hospital where he was retaught the most basic skills sitting up, eating and standing. We faithfully paid the premiums on the employer-sponsored plan through which our family is covered, along with the rest of our bills, thanking God and whoever else would listen for our good fortune to have coverage.
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But having lived in hospitals with Mason for months, I have seen that bad things accidents, freak illnesses happen to smart, cautious and otherwise undeserving people. Its one thing we all have in common. We are fragile beings. So what is wrong with allowing us to purchase a financial safety net? Whats so un-American about that?
If I could get John Boehner and Ted Cruz on a conference call, I would explain this to them. I would tell them that, while they were busy trying to derail the Affordable Care Act over the past two years, Mason has again learned to walk, talk, eat and shoot a three-point basket.
warrior1
(12,325 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)2. Repukes are not responsible for your child after it's born, you and the child are
3. Why didn't you have a few 100k's of dollars saved up for such a catastrophic health problem
4. Why didn't you and your family get many, many high paying jobs to pay for this
5. Why are you thanking a black man?
6. Think of the BIG picture - If the government has to pick up such costs, it could not afford to build another aircraft carrier
God bless, hope , peace and future good health be with you and yours.
SharonAnn
(13,779 posts)Someone in this position is ill-prepared to deal with this kind of sarcasm.
Yes, I know it's a sarcastic rendition of the GOP position, but still.
Have some kindness for this poster. Create an OP separate from this thread.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)I'm so glad it was there to catch this family.
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)...my boss's son got an eye infection one time that looked like pink eye, but when they took him to the hospital to have it checked it was found to be an aggressive infection that had travelled behind the eye into the cranial cavity. They gave him a 50/50 chance of recovery, that it was almost too late to treat, and only a great deal of anti-biotics reversed things and let him fully recover quickly. Another day and that would have been that.
One time my boss (who has insurance for his family) was complaining about Obamacare and I reminded him that, without insurance myself, I probably would have had to hope for the best and wait another couple of days to go to the doctor if that had happened to one of my kids. He hasn't really been negative about it since.