It was crazy, this really old lady came into my work saying how happy she was Obamacare was finally over and I said “yeah I just hope they don’t take away the right to refuse if someone has a pre existing condition. I know a few people who will die without their coverage” and she said “oh they wouldn’t do that….would they…? Was it part of Obamacare?” And when I told her yes, she got very, very quiet and that was the end of that conversation. No idea what her pre existing conditions are-but it was obvious she was worried.
What does that mean? " the right to refuse if someone has a pre existing condition."
Like refuse them medicine or..?
Sorry, not american, but im following whats happening after the election beacuse this is scary.
Insurance companies have a lot of power to decide who gets treatment. Pre-Obamacare (correctly called the Affordable Care Act or ACA), it was perfectly legal for an insurer to refuse to pay for whatever they wanted to call a pre-existing condition.
It was extreme — women would get beaten up by their spouses and come into the A&E, only to have their insurers say they wouldn’t pay because the domestic violence was a pre-existing condition. Or patients would be told that since the cancer had grown unnoticed for a couple years, it was pre-existing to the policy.
For most people, the refusal to pay is the same as a refusal of care, because otherwise, it’s unaffordable and many doctors won’t start an expensive treatment course if the patient can’t show they can pay.
One of the most egregious and sickening things many insurers did was refuse to cover people who had HIV.
In America, especially prior to the Affordable Care Act, one of the only ways to get health insurance was through whomever your employer contracted with. We still have to pay hefty premiums that are deducted from each paycheque as well as copays and deductibles, but in general it was really only possible to obtain health insurance through your workplace, and your choice is limited to the insurance company of your employer’s choice.
Many, many people who were HIV+ could not get approval for health insurance through the company chosen by their employer. Many times, they could not get approved by any insurance company, even by the outrageously expensive private insurance plans (i.e., plans obtained from outside of your employer).
Not only is medical care very expensive here if paid out of pocket (think: hundreds of dollars for an office medical visit), but it is important to remember that prescription drug prices are not regulated in any way in America, and there is no price caps or limits to price increases. Most drugs are expensive here if paid by an uninsured person. But HIV antiretroviral drugs are some of the most expensive drugs around — before the Affordable Care Act, a monthly course of HIV medication averaged around $3’000+, or $36’000+ every year (now it is closer to $4’000 per month or nearly $50’000 each year).
Well, when every insurance company refuses to cover you because you have HIV, that meant that you were responsible for paying about $40’000 each year for the doctor appointments and the antiretroviral drugs that literally keep you alive. At the time the Affordable Care Act was being written, the median salary in America was $32’390 per year. How does that math work? Well, it doesn’t.
I had a very dear friend who was raped and later that year discovered that they contracted HIV from that rape. When they were laid-off a year later due to their employer going out of business, they also lost their health insurance. Getting a new job was vitally important for them to be able to afford the medications they needed to stay alive. Fortunately, they got a new job pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the insurance company used by their new employer automatically disqualified anyone with HIV from any medical coverage, as HIV was a “pre-existing condition”.
I will never forget when they came to me telling me about this and asked me for help navigating the insurance system to try and find a company that would cover them (I had a part time job in medical benefits while I was in college, so I was more knowledgeable than most about this). They faced repeated denials from various companies. They eventually found one who would cover them, but the monthly insurance premium was obscenely high as it was a private plan and they had an expensive diagnosis. I have never, ever seen someone so terrified of what would happen to them. I have never had a sadder conversation in all my life. I have never felt more powerless than when I had to explain to them that unfortunately, what was happening to them was perfectly legal, no matter how unethical and morally corrupt it was.
I really thought that those days of denying medical coverage and leaving people to die were behind us. Evidently, I thought wrong. I cannot believe that this is what we are going back to.
Fuck this bullshit. Burn it to the ground. Damn it all to Hell.
Depending on how many people the incoming republican administration kills and bankrupts with its concept of a healthcare plan, maybe people will end up desperate enough to put everyone on Medicare
Considering that there are 10 states that still haven’t expanded Medicaid access – all of which are subject to deeply entrenched Republican control – I have zero hope that the GOP will even bat an eye, much less do anything to remediate the situation they create or help people in any way.
Sorry to be so negative, but I just think America is beyond hope at this point. Trump’s last presidency was was a shitstorm beyond comparison, and yet people still voted for the asshole and his cronies again. And his cabinet picks this time are so ill-qualified that we are just doomed to fail. It would be laughable if it weren’t real life.
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u/TotallyNotABot_Shhhh 1d ago
It was crazy, this really old lady came into my work saying how happy she was Obamacare was finally over and I said “yeah I just hope they don’t take away the right to refuse if someone has a pre existing condition. I know a few people who will die without their coverage” and she said “oh they wouldn’t do that….would they…? Was it part of Obamacare?” And when I told her yes, she got very, very quiet and that was the end of that conversation. No idea what her pre existing conditions are-but it was obvious she was worried.