I Wish ACA Had Been Law When I Was a Student
Posted March 24th, 2011 by Bernadette SeguraNow that I am the mother of two children, sons aged 2 ½ and 11 months, I am grateful for a law like the Affordable Care Act.
When I was 21, I “aged out” of my parents’ insurance because I was no longer in school full-time. My first job after graduating from college provided me with insurance but when I decided to go to law school, I was faced with an ugly truth – I could not afford health insurance. Fortunately, I was healthy and accident-free.
Then during my first year of law school, at the age of 24, I was playing intramural basketball with friends and tore my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), one of the four major ligaments of the knee. Because I was uninsured, I was unable to undergo reconstructive surgery or receive any physical therapy.
Three years later when I obtained health insurance through my job, the health insurance company would not pay for reconstructive surgery because it was a “preexisting condition.” Today, 8 years after my injury, I wear a brace when I play sports. My knee still wobbles when I walk downstairs and hurts after running. While I’ve been blessed to be able to rehab my knee to a condition near normal, I can’t help but wonder how much the surgery would have helped.
Now that I am the mother of two very active sons I realize how important medical insurance is. We’ve already had countless scares with my two-year-old from an urgent care visit for a fall to the average ear infection or cold. While more needs to be done to improve on the Affordable Care Act, at least I know that my sons can remain on my insurance until they are 26 or they are able to obtain their own. For that, I am grateful.
Bernadette Segura is the mother of two sons and lives in El Paso, Texas.
2 Comments
March 26, 2011 at 10:15 am by LawyeqrGirlMaybe if law school wasn’t so expensive, Bernadette would have been able to afford health insurance. The amount of money I invested in law school did not prepare me for the realities of the job market. Attorneys are a dime a dozen. At least with the health insurance premiums that I pay, I get some return in physicals and exams.
Now that we have health reform, we should push for secondary education reform and put these Ivy League schools on a budget that equals what is paid for a State school education.
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March 26, 2011 at 7:39 am by KellySo would you not have faced the same ugly reality that while still in law school at age 26, you would fall off your parent’s plan under ACA and still not be able to afford health insurance? So why 26? What is so magical about 26? Maybe it should be raised to 30? Why should our kids be forced to grow up so fast and be responsible for themselves so early in their lives? Maybe parents should carry their kids for as long as their children want to stay under their care? That could be 40, or 50…. That way our kids would not have to worry about growing up and being responsible and instead, live at home in their parent’s basement playing X-Box until their 50.
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