How The Girl With the Purple Cane Lost Her Obamacare Plan
The Obama administration has boasted that under the Affordable Care Act, “all Americans now have secure access to health insurance,” and “Americans will have the security of knowing that they don’t have to worry about … being rated up or denied coverage altogether due to a disability.” Liz Jackson’s story demonstrates that these promises, like others made by Obamacare’s authors, are not true.
On paper, Jackson—who has a a severe nerve condition that prevents her from working—seems exactly the kind of American the Affordable Care Act was designed to help. When Obamacare was enacted, Jackson—who is is also known as “The Girl With the Purple Cane"—did not just sign up for a government-subsidized plan herself, she trained as a volunteer ‘health care navigator’ to help others sign up. But earlier this year, the collapse of her insurer, Health Republic Insurance of New York — the largest of 12 health care co-ops nationwide set to close this year — has left her and more than 200,000 others without medical coverage after their plan ceases on Nov. 30.
So far, 750,000 Americans have lost their existing coverage when an Obamacare co-op collapsed, threatening their continuity of care. Jackson’s experience further shows how the amount enrollees pay for their Obamacare plans can skyrocket due to a disability.
On Wednesday, December 16th, at 12:00 p.m. at the Cato Institute, Jackson will share her experience with discontinuity of care under the ACA, arguing that Congress should mend the Affordable Care Act, not end it. Can Congress fix Obamacare? Or are these sorts of failures inevitable consequences of a government guarantee of access to medical care?
Can’t make it to the event? You can watch it live online at www.cato.org/live and join the conversation on Twitter using #CatoEvents.
