Cancer Patients Forced to find New Doctors Because of ObamaCare

The sickest, most vulnerable among us are at greatest risk because of ObamaCare!

Let's just repeat this again:

"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. (Applause.) If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. (Applause.) No one will take it away, no matter what." -- Barack Obama

Millions are now finding out how untrue that statement is. Democrats have responded by saying that somehow the health plans these millions had wasn't good enough. Really? Is that what the sickest patients think? The answer in many cases is an emphatic NO!

This story is but one of the millions of victims of ObamaCare's indifference to the consequences of big government meddling. There are many more.

You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor
I had great cancer doctors and health insurance. My plan was cancelled.
Now I worry how long I'll live.
By EDIE LITTLEFIELD SUNDBY
Wall Street Journal
Nov. 3, 2013

...For almost seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been canceled effective Dec. 31.

My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.
...
Two things have been essential in my fight to survive stage-4 cancer. The first are doctors and health teams in California and Texas: at the medical center of the University of California, San Diego, and its Moores Cancer Center; Stanford University's Cancer Institute; and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The second element essential to my fight is a United Healthcare PPO (preferred provider organization) health-insurance policy.

Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers
...
You would think it would be simple to find a health-exchange plan that allows me, living in San Diego, to continue to see my primary oncologist at Stanford University and my primary care doctors at the University of California, San Diego. Not so. UCSD has agreed to accept only one Covered California plan—a very restrictive Anthem EPO Plan. EPO stands for exclusive provider organization, which means the plan has a small network of doctors and facilities and no out-of-network coverage (as in a preferred-provider organization plan) except for emergencies. Stanford accepts an Anthem PPO plan but it is not available for purchase in San Diego (only Anthem HMO and EPO plans are available in San Diego).

So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCSD. Stanford has kept me alive—but UCSD has provided emergency and local treatment support during wretched periods of this disease, and it is where my primary-care doctors are.

Anyone who has ever had a serious illness or known someone who has knows how important it is to find the right doctor(s) that best meet their needs. But now, because of ObamaCare, those options are being reduced and the consequences will be deadly for some. The writer sums up her feelings this way:

For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people's ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that's a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that's the point.

If ObamaCare were a Republican program Democrats would say it was a "war on women" like Edie. I say ObamaCare is just a war on average Americans everywhere. Obama's rich friends will still get quality care!