The New York Times has an op-ed piece by Cameron Zeigler, a former social worker with Young Onset PD. Cameron was diagnosed at the age of 44, and eventually had to leave his job. Thanks to insurance he got through the Obamacare exchanges in his state, he was able to receive appropriate medical care and avoid bankruptcy.
With the Republican-controlled Congress and President Trump set to repeal Obamacare, Cameron faces an uncertain future. The Republicans say they will replace it with something better, but at the moment they have no plan on the table.
Cameron is worried about what will happen next. He writes:
My medications for symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease and dementia cost about $900 per month, but under my Obamacare coverage, I pay only $130 per month.
Without these medications, and therapy, I would lose the capacity to function cognitively and emotionally. Patients like me are at a high risk for suicide because of depression stemming from cognitive decline. If I stopped receiving the care I needed, I would most likely end up living in a hospital or nursing home to keep me safe, which would cost the government much more money.
My prognosis is not good, but Obamacare gets me the treatment I need so that I can be myself as long as possible. Without this insurance, my illness would progress more rapidly, until I died.
Thus he’s one of millions of Americans who are waiting anxiously to see what the government will do in the next few weeks.
So far Cameron’s article has generated over 600 reader comments. One of the first offered this advice, which I hadn’t considered before:
“Mr. Ziegler, you need to find a way to move to New York which has had the Obamacare protections crucial to you for years or even better Massachusetts which has full scope Romneycare, a virtually identical precursor to Obamacare. The difference between state level rules in NY and MA is that MA has a tax penalty for the willfully uninsured that prods well (usually younger) folks to insure themselves. There may be another state or two with an enlightened state health insurance system that I am not aware of.”
What does the future hold?
