ACA on David P. Discher

Average Citizens AHCA Raw Bill Review – Part 1

Fri, 05 May 2017 21:53:48 +0000

So, What can an average, well-educated person get from reading the AHCA ?

Disclaimer, I’m a liberal, Sanders-Democrat living in Silicon Valley area of California. I’m currently enrolled in an individual plan, covered by the ACA, but NOT purchased via Covered California web site – but directly from the private insurance company. I am not a politician and have no legal education or background. I have an Engineering education and BS.

Anthem’s “Pathway PPO” Individual plan has physically injured me.

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 04:35:04 +0000

I have been a big proponent of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The pre-existing conditions clause allowed me to take time off from my career and work towards re-training and building a startup. I’m writing documenting my experience not because of an issues with ACA, but because of a failure of a for-profit health insurance company interfering with my care.

I was diagnosed back in Spring of 2010 with psoriatic arthritis. I was plagued with mysterious pain in all different places, which I originally credited to soreness from snowboarding. It took months to correctly identify and determine what the best treatment was for me. Finally, I was prescribed REMICADE® (infliximab), and have been getting this every 7-8 weeks for 6 years. REMICADE is giving via intravenous infusion. ( I will refer to this as my “infusion” or “treatment”. ) During this time I was continuously employed and had been treated by the same medical group on various HMO/PPO plans and insurers from at least three different employers. Except for a small HMO vs PPO billing confusion (which took a year to resolve), all these insurance policies covered the same medical group for six years. This treatment has worked extremely well. Each infusion costs about $6,000-10,000 and I believe the cost of the drug has doubled in the past 6 years. (As well as the drug fluctuates in cost monthly.)

This is Personal: ACA, ObamaCare and the GOP

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 17:09:45 +0000

Friends and especially FAMILY – Your votes matters to my HEALTH.

This is extremely personal for me.

If you vote Republican, especially for ones that want to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, “ObamaCare”) – you will hurt my health. (BTW – ObamaCare is NOT insurance, it is laws. Some states have not fully enacted the ACA due to partisanship and obstructionism.)

If you vote for candidates and support repealing the ACA, and currently have insurance via your employer, you have a misunderstanding. You are NOT using ObamaCare (except for things like children being able to stay on your plan till 26, covering preexisting conditions, free birth control and other zero cost preventive care). If you get insurance via your employer, and think the ACA is bad – then you don’t understand the complete scope of the law.