At age 20, I was diagnosed with metastatic soft tissue sarcoma, leaving me with 20-plus tumors in my lungs requiring frequent CT scans to monitor growth. Against all odds, I’ve survived and health coverage is my lifeline. Without health insurance, I don’t know how I would pay for the medical care needed to monitor my cancer and manage ongoing health complications.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, cancer survivors like myself cannot be denied health insurance because of our pre-existing condition: a cancer diagnosis. We cannot be dropped from our health insurance if we get sick again. And we don’t have to worry about lifetime or annual dollar limits on our health coverage.
Cancer and its lasting side effects will be with me for the rest of my life, so I desperately need these protections. I take 10 medications daily, three designed to prevent life-threatening blood clots. Prior to ACA protections, I paid $1,200 per month for one of those anti-coagulants.
My medical costs have far surpassed the $1 million lifetime dollar limit that most insurers had in place prior to the ACA. I am deeply concerned about what will happen to myself and my family if this protection is yanked away and insurers can again impose limits on health coverage. My health care would likely disappear and if my tumors grow again or I develop a new cancer, it would ultimately lead to my early but likely preventable death.
American Cancer Society research shows that those without insurance are less likely to get screened for cancer, more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage and less likely to survive their cancer. That’s why having access to comprehensive health insurance will be critical for the nearly 3,000 people in Wyoming expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and the estimated 30,370 Wyoming residents who are cancer survivors.
As the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Wyoming grassroots manager, I want our members of Congress to consider how the current law protects cancer patients and survivors. Any changes to the ACA must ensure patient protections remain the same or improve, while preventing any gaps in coverage for cancer patients, survivors and those at risk for the disease.
Since the ACA passed in 2010, many changes to health insurance have protected patients, and more people have health coverage than ever before. Nationwide, 30 million Americans gained health coverage through the marketplace, including almost 22,100 Wyoming residents. Any changes to the health care law should at least sustain, if not expand, the number of Americans with health insurance.
Before the ACA, 196,000 Wyoming residents were enrolled in health plans that imposed lifetime limits on their health benefits. It’s estimated that in 2015, 94,000 Wyomingites had a pre-existing condition like cancer that could have denied them coverage without ACA.