How the Affordable Care Act Has Helped My Family
Posted March 23rd, 2011 by Jose Ricardo BondocBefore the Affordable Care Act, it was difficult for many members of my family to obtain coverage due to “pre-existing conditions.”
Our family’s medical history includes our father’s death due to a heart attack and stroke in 1990. Alzheimer’s disease is present in both our mother’s side and father’s side — with three grandparents currently suffering from the disease. Also present in our medical records is arthritis in several aunts. Many private health insurance companies did not want to give us health care coverage.
But thanks to ACA and the Healthy San Francisco health care program, my maternal grandparents have been able to get the health care that they need. Also, my brother and sister-in-law were able to receive prenatal care while they were awaiting the birth of my niece.
My niece is now turning one year old in April, and it is because of her parents’ love and health care coverage that she has a bright future ahead of her. ACA has helped many families, including mine.
Jose Ricardo Bondoc lives in San Francisco, California.
5 Comments
July 15, 2012 at 7:19 pm by acrxIts like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot approximately this, like you wrote the guide in it or something. I think that you can do with some p.c. to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is great blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.
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May 6, 2011 at 2:50 pm by Nick B. of Pittsburgh, PAWell I was one of the 41,000 people who lost their health insurance when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett cancelled the adultBasic insurance program. AdultBasic was an HMO health insurance plan that was BASIC insurance run by the Blue Crosses in the state and initially funded by the big Tobacco Settlement we got when many states reached a settlement with the tobacco companies. But since I take Coumadin I couldn’t buy insurance, I was denied several times in my state and others. And I still will be too. They had one bare bones policy that is still crappy coverage called “Special Care” from the Blues. But it limited diagnostics (i.e. lab work etc) to $1,000 per year. Now I take Coumadin, you HAVE to get your blood checked every few weeks or so to make sure you don’t bleed to death.
But the Affordable Care lifted these caps altogether! This went away when they lifted some restriction last October.
I can’t wait until 2014 when I can actually BUY REAL insurance through the exchanges. But right now it HAS HELPED ME BY LIFITING THE ANNUAL CAP ON DIAGNOSTIC TESTING!
Thank you President Obama!
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Anita Reply:
May 9th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Wow, thank you for sharing your story, Nick!
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Nick B. Reply:
August 7th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
@Anita,
Just this week Highmark the local Blue Cross announced they were raising rates for the Special Care insurance.
I was worried.
But a Bill Toland reporter and Erin Gill of PHAN told me that the rate increase was only 9.9%. Ering told me that the Affordable Care Act would have forced Highmark to show HHS (Health and Human Services) why they wanted 10% of above!
So once again…thank you Affordable Care Act!
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hello this group is very helpful
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