Over the years we've been pretty outspoken about our experience with health insurance and our health insurance provider, Health Net (see past postshere,here,here,here, andhere), and our thoughts on the health care reform legislation that was passed in 2010 (see the article on our family in theNew York Times and our posthere). With the swearing in of the 112th Congress this week, the leading party in the House of Representatives has made it crystal clear that repealing this legislation is job #1 on their agenda. And they've wasted no time getting their gears in motion to make an early attempt — regardless of the unlikely possibility of them actually accomplishing their goal.
No, we're not naive enough to think that the current legislation is perfect. But it does have tangible, positive impacts on several injustices that existed before its passing — namely the abolishment of lifetime caps and pre-existing conditions. Both of these issues directly impact our family in a material way and reverting back to the old system would place us squarely back on the path marching toward financial ruin when we hit that lifetime cap on our health insurance policy — making our family instantly uninsurable due to Gwendolyn's SMA or our pre-existing condition.
Yesterday Representative Lois Capps talked about Gwendolyn and our family's story (and even showed pictures of Gwendolyn on her new pony) on the floor of the House of Representatives as an example of the importance of this legislation. We are honored to lend our voice as a rebuttal to the attempt to repeal it. And we hope that those whom are fortunate enough to have health and are not faced with the brutal realities that we are, will hear the story of our family and the millions of other Americans in similar situations and understand that this legislation impacts real people, right now.
And, as always, we are super excited about the SMA awareness that comes along with it! Thank you Rep. Lois Capps for highlighting SMA and Gwendolyn's story on the House floor yesterday.
Click HERE to or on the image below to read the story…
