General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Savage Arithmetic of the Pre-Existing Condition [View all]Moostache
(11,282 posts)I am in the exact same boat.
When I was 37, I got sick from eating some food I left in the fridge while out of town for my sister's wedding...I ended up in the emergency room with acute food poisoning and stomach cramping that had me doubled over or throwing up for hours. In the ER I went to, the attending physician decided to do an X-Ray to check for anything internal that might be the cause. The X-Ray tech noticed a very small lesion on my right kidney and recommended I follow up with an internist immediately.
The next day I was having an MRI and within 36 hours of the onset of my food poisoning I was diagnosed with stage 1 kidney cancer. Just like that I was forever removed from the ranks of people who CAN buy insurance on the individual market.
This is my reality until the day I die. I am a pre-existing condition and without ACA or a steady job, if my cancer comes out of remission I will die from it as surely as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West...