Scott of Nashville, TN
Scott of Nashville, TN writes:
In 2000, I had CIGNA health insurance. My premium was $10,000 a year. I was self-employed. CIGNA took care of prescriptions and doctor’s visits. But in 2008 our premium rose to $18,000 a year with a $5,000 deducible. But if we went in the hospital, we would have to pay a $27,000 deducible. With this policy we had to pay 100% of office visits and 100% of our prescriptions. When President Obama was elected, we decided to put our faith in him and cancel our useless health insurance policy and hope and pray that the ACA would pass. Toward the end of 2009 our business was picking up so we decided to try to get health insurance to hold us over while Obamacare was in the works. We contacted many companies but with me having had breast cancer in 1999 and Scott having diabetes, we could not buy health insurance at any cost. No company would insure us. So we continued to wait for Obamacare.
We signed up the first month the ACA was taking enrollments. At first our monthly premiums were $814 for each of us. We had to have separate accounts. But well worth it to have the peace of mind that if we got sick, we would be covered. After a couple of years, the monthly premium dropped to just over $400 a month for each of us.
In 2014, I started having weakness the legs. After a trip to the ER and having tests run, the $6200 deducible was paid in by the end of June. My diagnosis was having a rare disease called CIDP. My immune system was fighting my body, Only 1 in 1 million get this disease a year and it’s very had to diagnose. My legs got weaker and I started falling. Soon I lost all use of my legs.
During a month’s stay in the hospital, I had several treatments at a cost of $8,00 each had 3 physical therapy sessions every day. After such good care at St. Thomas Hospital, I was able to walk again and was back to normal. We received a statement, not a bill, from the hospital before all the charges were even submitted. The statement was for over $200,000. We did not have a pay any of that statement and never received a bill. We could not have made it if we had not had Obamacare.
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