Cancer and Insurance and Stuff

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington D.C.  20500

26 January 2017 

Dear President Trump:

I know that you and congress are working to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  I first want to ask you to spare two provisions of it.  And then want to ask you, in your replacement proposal, to consider retaining the spirit of the ACA.

I am a hard-working person.  In the 27 years since I graduated from college, I have worked full time as a writer, editor, high school teacher, and college professor.  Throughout this time, I have been employed full time, even while working on three more college degrees. 

Six years ago I was diagnosed with skin cancer (melanoma).  Because of the ACA’s provision that guarantees that insurance companies cannot drop me because of a preexisting condition, I have been able to continue to work full time while battling cancer.  During those six years, I have taught close to a thousand students and have help them get responsible employment and become tax-paying citizens.  When you and congress repeal the ACA, I may be unable to get insurance if my college switches carriers.  Because of my preexisting condition I may  consequently may be unable to get employment.

The ACA also has a provision that prevents insurance companies from imposing a lifetime limit on spending by the insurance company per insured person.  I was on an immunotherapy study that eventually gained FDA approval.  That drug, Pembrolizumab (or Keytruda) is expensive, but has also shrunk my tumor.  In three months, I will be able to go off the drug.  However, if that provision is taken away, I will have surpassed the lifetime limit as it existed before the ACA.  This means that even though I will be healthy and able to contribute to my insurance plan, I will be unable to benefit from it. 

Finally, though this does not affect me directly, the ACA allowed many people who did not have health care to gain access to it.  Studies have shown that when people do not have health care, they cost the system far more because they need to rely on emergency rooms for care. 

So if you and congress must repeal the ACA, when you replace it, please ensure that the provisions for no preexisting condition clauses, and for no lifetime limits remain.  And if you want to save money, either continue coverage for those who got insurance under the ACA, or if you really want to improve on the ACA, as you said you do, extend coverage to even more Americans than were covered under the ACA.  

Thank you for considering how to take care of Americans.  It is important.

 

Regards,

Bill Boerman-Cornell