Another Obamacare Success Story - And It's Personal

I've already documented my own great experience under the CA Medicaid expansion provided for under the ACA. In short, my high blood pressure is now totally under control (153/85 now down to 122/60) and I'm being treated for a pre-diabetic condition, with changes to diet and some medications.

But today, I want to talk about my wife, who is a cancer survivor of close to 9 years. We were on her COBRA until last summer when the 18-month COBRA window expired. In the final two years of annual check-ups/mammograms, it was recommended that she have surgery to remove a pre-cancerous tissue clump in the breast that had the cancer 9 years ago. We couldn't afford the surgery because the co-pay was ridiculously high (over $5000 a year in premiums paid, but we couldn't afford the out-of-pocket for her to have the surgery). With me not working, we rolled the dice and hoped things didn't take a turn for the worse.

But now we're on Kaiser Permanente through Obamacare, so my wife is going through the usual tests. The condition is still there and is still pre-cancerous. The difference is that under Obamacare, she can now have the surgery AT NO COST TO US. So, she'll have the surgery in July, followed by radiation treatment.

The thing is that KP only has radiation treatments available in LA and Ontario, and she's supposed to go 5 days a week for a couple of weeks. That's a bit much for us living in OC (KP is building a new facility in Anaheim, but it isn't done). However, under CalOptima Medicaid, you are allowed to change your provider every 30 days if you so wish. So, we could simply elect for my wife to go with a provider that offers radiation that's closer to home, returning to KP as provider once the treatments are done. Or, we could see if she can wait on the treatments until the Anaheim center opens. Or, we could see if an out-of-network option was available...which would cost us something.

IMO, this is what Obamacare is all about. Think of the million of Americans who are not able to get the same care that my wife is getting, all because some RW Christian politician is a racist who is keeping the Medicaid expansion from becoming a reality in their state for one reason: Obama is black.

Again, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, MR PRESIDENT!!