Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Trump and Diabetes

One of Donald Trump's goals as President is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare."

I can understand why many are upset about the fact that it's expensive. Good health care is expensive, and Medicare isn't free either.

But one of the mandates in Obamacare is that insurers can't penalize people for having preexisting conditions. Before that, it was almost impossible for people without health insurance who had already been diagnosed with diabetes to get any health insurance at all.

If Obamacare is repealed, does this mean millions of people with diabetes will suddenly find themselves with no insurance and no possibility of getting replacement insurance?

It's a scary thought.


2 comments:

  1. The Ryan plan addresses guaranteed issue on page 20 - http://abetterway.speaker.gov/_assets/pdf/ABetterWay-HealthCare-PolicyPaper.pdf

    o Continuous Coverage Protections
    Our plan also proposes a new patient protection for those Americans who maintain continuous coverage.
    Already in place for the employer market, this protection would apply to those in the individual market as well.
    This is how it works: If an individual experiences a qualifying life event, he or she would not be charged more than standard rates – even if he or she is dealing with a serious medical issue.

    This new safeguard applies to everyone who remains enrolled in a health insurance plan, whether the individual is switching from employer-based health care to the individual market, or within the individual market.

    This provision is modeled after a 1996 law – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly
    known as HIPAA – that offers pre-existing condition protections when patients move from one job to
    another.50 In other words, without this protection even those individuals who maintained continuous coverage
    in the group market were not rewarded and were rated by insurers each time they enrolled in a new plan. This
    often resulted in an increase in premium costs for individuals and families. Extending these protections to the individual market is a simple but important reform that will encourage Americans to enroll in coverage and stay enrolled.

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  2. If a ketogenic diet is followed diabetes becomes much less expensive. I am a diabetic on insulin and the cost is about the same as three quarter pounders without buns at Mac D's per month. My insulin (levemir and novilin lasts about three months) If you insist on a high carb diet you will spend lots more and not have good control. I have excellent control (blood glucose in 80's most of the time}.

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