Latest GOP Obamacare horror story makes the case for single payer
The GOP has a new horror story, and one that, as far as we can see, is really sad. A cancer patient who was kicked out of her insurance, lied by another one and finds out that her expensive medicine is not covered.
Here is the OP that her son wrote for the Wall Street Journal. Sad story indeed, though this patient, belonging to the medical world, is probably better able to deal with these issues than the usual patient.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303945704579390772732855560?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303945704579390772732855560.html
Indeed, I feel for the woman and her family, but something was off when it came to Obamacare when I read this story.
Thanksfully, Michael Hiltzik from the LA Times, answered to this. Let's state, as he does, that Mrs Blackwood mother appears to have been genuinely abused by the health insurance system.
However, is that the fault of Obamacare. That part is not proven, far from it.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-cancer-medicine-20140224,0,4157578.story#ixzz2uMlRxjbv
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-cancer-medicine-20140224,0,4157578.story
So other than the cancellation of the old plan, which may or may not have anything to do with the ACA, the Blackwoods' problems fall into two categories: the difficulty of navigating the enrollment process, and Humana's refusal to cover Sandostatin.
Certainly, healthcare.gov was a mess, but how is the fact that Humana refused to cover her medicine after she enrolled Obamacare's fault?
As Hiltzik concludes, if Obamacare can be faulted on something, it is on its reliance on private insurances, whose abuses have been largely documented during the last 20 years at least, not by an effort to create a systemic program to cover everybody.
So, for me, this story makes the point for a single payer system that is non profit.
