EVERYONE eventually has a pre-existing condition. If you’re too young to remember what it was like before the ACA, please know that we were fucked.
-
EVERYONE eventually has a pre-existing condition. If you’re too young to remember what it was like before the ACA, please know that we were fucked.
-
Shannon Clarkreplied to StillIRise1963 for HARRIS last edited by
@StillIRise1963 pregnancy was a preexisting condition.
My son was born before the ACA came into effect. We bought very expensive health insurance for my wife while she was pregnant witb our son.
And it was good that we had as he spent 15 days in the NICU after birth (and my wife’s recovery was difficult) w/o insurance the bill for that would have been $350,000+ (after many $1000’s of pre-natal care)
With insurance we hit our deductible and the bill they paid was $80k+. But I was uninsured
-
@Rycaut @StillIRise1963 My oldest was born in a Catholic hospital in Ohio with what we called "Original Debt".
My wife was insured and the insurer covered the birth itself, but they billed us for everything that was for the newborn, for whom they disclaimed responsibility.
-
@Rycaut @StillIRise1963 After ACA it would definitely be covered through expanded Medicaid.
-
@aadmaa @StillIRise1963 wouldn’t even require Medicaid - we could have had family coverage from the ACA instead of only covering my wife (and we were privileged to have been able to afford that high cost coverage and to get it we had to work with a specialist insurance broker). To be clear while neither of us worked for a big company at the time we were highly paid consultants with savings - wouldn’t have qualified for Medicaid but with pre-existing conditions couldn’t afford family coverage
-
@aadmaa @StillIRise1963 the expensive plan we had at the time of my son’s birth covered him for I think 30 days after birth. Meaning we were lucky that his NICU stay wasn’t longer.
(The premature babies who were in the NICU when he was born could be there for months - he was full term but had an infection something that could happen to anyone - those other babies were “million” dollar babies as their bill could be that or higher. Some would be going home to foster care.
-
@Rycaut @aadmaa @StillIRise1963 I’m glad your child and wife were OK and I sincerely hope for the best for the other “million dollar babies”.
-
@Beachbum @aadmaa @StillIRise1963 thanks and indeed I wonder about them as I watch my son now.
The insane thing about the US health insurance system even post ACA is that everyone will eventually need health care and often it isn’t for anything preventable (I had appendicitis a few years ago - covered thankfully by my ACA plan from CoveredCA - but no one can prevent or plan for that - and I had a micro burst so had complications)