Obama is defining the legacy - no family will ever face financial ruin because of illness, period. Everyone gets coverage when they need it. Unfortunately, Dale, that is not quite true. I had insurance when I was diagnosed with cancer, and have had continuous coverage in the five and a half years since then. What brought me to financial ruin was not a lack of medical insurance, but a lack of disability insurance. I haven't been able to work for most of the time since my diagnosis, and living expenses consumed all my savings and investments. And even with the medical coverage, I had a lot of out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare.
Eventually, I qualified for Social Security Disability, and that has kept me afloat, just barely. Naturally, I've had to scale back my lifestyle significantly.
The ACA is a good thing, overall, in my view. It will certainly reduce the financial burdens of catastrophic illnesses or injuries for millions of families. But I think that we, as a nation, to do more to address the issue of loss of income due to health problems.
I highly recommend buying disability insurance. I never did because I simply didn't imagine I would need it. |
