Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

This one about narrowing pediatric service networks when your baby has a hole in her heart:

Norah was diagnosed with a hole in her heart and Wolff Parkinson White syndrome. Norah’s heart has extra circuits and will randomly fire off at up to 300 beats per minute during one of her spells. Dr. Garmany told us that it is not an extremely rare disorder; some people live their whole lives not knowing they have WPW and others die at age 8 leaving behind parents who had no idea.

Norah was hooked up to monitors overnight and came back for test after test. While the financial consequences of Norah’s medical issues are a tough burden, the emotional toll is much, much harder. Every time she naps for more than an hour, every time she is in the middle of playing and suddenly starts screaming, when her feet turn blue or her face turns red; we are constantly panicked. The silver lining is that our amazing pediatrician helped catch it early and we have (had) full faith in one of the best pediatric cardiologists in the country.

Snip.

In late May, we were notified that because of tripling premiums, my husband’s employer was dropping Cigna for a new insurance. This comes one year after they dropped United Healthcare because premiums were increasing drastically. United and Cigna are very similar and adequate insurances, however we did lose coverage, options, and our deductible went from one thousand per family member to two thousand per family member. Out of pocket for our family went from eight thousand to eighteen thousand.

Last year we lost thousands in out of pocket expenses to keep premiums bearable, this year his employer changed to a policy with fewer doctors. It should also be said that my husband’s employer is not the bad party here; they’ve increased their contributions every year to reduce premiums as well. Most employers care deeply about their people, but the tide of Obamacare will be too big to be shielded from. We lost doctors. We lost our most important doctor; Norah lost Dr. Garmany. We have to start all over; removed from the expert we fully trust. Obamacare has taken away the peace we had knowing our baby had the best care possible.

Snip.

We are stuck with one plan, one option, and it is a company that nobody knows. Even doctors in the network believe that they are not in the network. We found out in the last week of May that open enrollment ends June 1st with Norah’s looming appointment June 6th. We searched immediately for our doctors, spent every day writing appeals and trying to get Dr. Garmany and others in the network. We are the third party, trying to match doctors who have never heard of a sketchy PPO to a PPO that has one person trying to answer the phone for the entire company. A billing specialist at one of our doctors asked if we were insured with “Uncle Jerry’s Medical Insurance and Tackle Shop.”

Snip.

Obamacare is the problem. Period. Insurances companies were providing a product that was voluntary to purchase and people bought it willingly and happily. Some, like my husband, pick one job over another for medical benefits that the company provides. Medical insurance is a benefit and was a good benefit for us. Insurance companies must cover their asses because they are now being forced to sell a product they do not want to sell, many times to people who do not want to buy it. Anyone who cannot find Obamacare at fault for the massive number of families who have lost coverage, doctors, or endured huge increases in premiums and deductibles is in denial or in need of strong medication.

I want to shed light on my problem because there are millions of families that have similar issues and millions more to come. This is only the beginning; as time ticks down to the new date of the employer mandate, millions more will have a story just like Norah’s. Obamacare is a ruse, rammed through Congress in a disgusting fashion and shoved down the throats of good, tax-paying Americans. The dirty trick of Obamacare is to destroy companies like Cigna and United, who cannot provide affordable insurance while covering people at forced rates that would otherwise cause them to lose billions, while insurance companies like First Health Network will pop up all over the place and provide insurance that nobody wants. Obamacare is designed to destroy private insurance and force Americans into Uncle Sam’s loving arms.

Read the whole thing.