With Obamacare repealed, 1 in 4 adults could be uninsurable due to a pre-existing condition

[TomCADem]

Source: CBS

At least one in four U.S. adults could be uninsurable due to a pre-existing condition in the wake of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, according to an estimate by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation released Monday. Those adults, or about 52 million people, have a current or past diagnosis that could allow health insurers to refuse them health coverage, the Kaiser analysis found.

Most adults get health insurance through their employer or public programs and are thus shielded from this aspect of the health insurance industry. But others, including self-employed people, lower-wage workers, early retirees and those in need of coverage in-between life changes, seek coverage on the individual insurance market.

The “vast majority” of that 52 million population is covered through their employer or public programs, according to the Kaiser report. But if any of those people lost insurance because of unemployment, divorce, turning 26 or another reason, their pre-existing condition would become an even bigger problem.

The scope of what has been considered a pre-existing condition can be shocking. Before the ACA, excludable pre-existing conditions included people who had diabetes, obesity or mental disorders (including being bipolar or having an eating disorder) or had been treated for alcohol or drug abuse, the Kaiser report shows.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/healthcare/with-obamacare-repealed-1-in-4-adults-could-be-uninsurable-due-to-a-pre-existing-condition/ar-AAlt6qW?li=BBnbfcL

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Of course, turning Medicaid into a block grant program will really hit many in the working class .

[bucolic_frolic]

1. The result of this, in my view, is

voucherized with mandatory coverage - you must have health coverage and
you must pay the difference between voucher and insurance, and the insurance
will be like swiss cheese

Plundering everything you ever owned or put aside is just around the corner

[wordpix]

12. "Maintain and strengthen," not "repeal and replace" is my stand

I am not letting these fat cat repukes take basic health insurance away from poor people, middle class wage earners, poor sick people, people making min. wage, etc.

[Sunlei]

2. Lots more were excluded just due to age alone.

[Crash2Parties]

5. Funny (not) how the older you get the more pre-existing conditions you have...

[Sunlei]

7. back to the old days-people die fast from poor quality expensive care & lose everything they own.

I'm 'hoping' once the best Americans are done with the transition, we millions develop a Public Union for a real healthcare insurance 'group'.

[spooky3]

3. Pre-Obamacare, some people with EMPLOYER coverage

Also were excluded from some care due to pre-existing conditions. So the problem is even more widespread than the article states.

[moonscape]

4. Back in the day, a friend of mine who was an ER charge nurse for 20 years, an avid

biker/hiker, never a sick day outside of a cold, was denied private coverage after going per diem because ... she took blood pressure medication.

[wordpix]

14. so many horror stories like that, I wrote one, too

sickening

[Crash2Parties]

6. Not to mention that trans people - even those who were post-everything - were categorically excluded

They were excluded, period, based on Jesse Helms' religious based amendment to the ADA (which was carried over boilerplate into insurance policies nationwide). And by that I mean they were denied things like coverage for a broken arm or other needs that had nothing to do with them being transgender.

[xor]

8. I had some that made me wait year before they would cover preexisting conditions

And not to mention the constant fear of them refusing to cover because after digging and digging they eventually found something that could be used to deny the coverage. Forget that!

[Bradical79]

13. Yeah, happened to me

I had insurance through work, but they just wouldn't pay for anything.

[Grins]

9. Good! Repeal it. Now; and all of it. And Social Security and Medicare, too.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H. L. Mencken

So give it to them!!! Kill Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare. All of it. And none of this 'exceptions for pre-existing conditions' crap either. It's all an economy-destroying "soshulist' plot to destroy our Freedumbs™!!! anyway, so it has to go. No Hoverounds for you, you Marxist moochers!!! Get a damn job!

Being a modern day conservative means never having to live in reality, so let them the live the reality of their convictions/vote. Let them dine and rejoice in the frightening, depressing dystopian hellscape that only a modern conservative can love that - they voted for.

We know that it only hits home when it truly hits you. So let it fly. I now think it's the only way left to show the Reich-wingers what conservatism is truly about.

[wordpix]

15. no, it should hit them that they get the same health care we get

Let them buy their own, whatever system they come up with.

since they only have "repeal" but not the "replace," I guess we have no affordable health care so they shouldn't either.

[adigal]

10. My 25 year old nephew has Crohn's disease

And his mother and sisters all voted for Trump. I don't think his father did.

And this is on Staten Island, not some deep red state.

[wordpix]

11. I posted the article w/the following on my FB page. Feel free to forward for repugs to "get it"

Maybe if they read this they can understand in black, white and $$$$$$$$ $ense.

"In December 2013, I was still getting tests for an illness that kept recurring, which was soon diagnosed as Stage 4 cancer. In the same time period, I was informed by my then private health insurance company, giving me 10 days' notice, they would no longer cover me. I was consulting with doctors, needing life-saving surgery, facing no health insurance in just days, and so sick I could no longer work.

Fortunately, Obamacare [a.k.a. Affordable Care Act (ACA)] was implemented that January and saved the day, and my life. The ACA is not perfect---far from it---but it saved me and has helped 22 million others. Now, however, it's in danger due to the results of the 2016 election, because both Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have vowed to "repeal and replace" it. They have no replacement plan yet, so they may just repeal now and replace later when they get a plan, however long that will take. That would bring us back to the bad old days before Obamacare.

If the ACA is repealed, an estimated one in four adults will likely become uninsurable due to coverage refusal to people with "pre-existing conditions." Such was the case before the ACA was implemented, but now people like me with such a problem are covered.

Nearly everyone's financial as well as physical health is at stake if the ACA is repealed. If one is uninsurable, he or she must pay out-of-pocket for all medical care needed. For those who have never experienced fantastical medical bills: my (one) surgery was billed at $175K; my 12 rounds of chemo at $250,000. This does not include costs for numerous tests, scans and doctor visits I have gone through in the past three years. The only people who won't be impacted by a repeal of the ACA are very wealthy people who don't care what things cost. The rest of us will be scrambling to pay medical bills out of pocket for either ourselves or family members who are uninsured.

If the ACA is repealed, many will have to liquidate assets and maybe sell a home or go bankrupt to pay medical bills. This is not some dystopian musing: we know this will be the result because it is exactly what uncovered sick people and their families went through before 2014.

The bottom line is we need to maintain and improve the ACA, not repeal and replace it. The life you save could be your own."