How the Current Health Care Debate Affects Me as Someone With Preexisting Conditions

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***This is an updated version of I preexist therefore I am… ***

 

I’ve been in a brain freeze for the past few days. The recent passing of the AHCA (American Health Care Act) in the House and the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA) have left me reeling for many reasons. When I expressed concerns, a friend asked why I was worried because I don’t use Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA) as my insurance. It made me realize that people have no idea what insurance is and how it works. We all think we know how it works, but honestly, the hows and whys are never really looked at in depth unless you need it.

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Kelly holds masters degrees in both Special Education and Speech-Language Pathology. She works full-time as a speech-language pathologist in both a public school setting and as an adjunct faculty member at a university, in Philadelphia, PA. She specializes in both autism and augmentative/alternative communication and took her skills to Uganda, Africa to start a special needs program for disabled children living in an orphanage in 2011. Kelly began experiencing symptoms of autoimmune arthritis in 1984 (while in her teens) but wasn’t officially diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis until 2001. Her first diagnosis was Sjogren’s syndrome. Eventually her diagnosis was changed to sero-negative RA and now Polyarticular Spondlyoarthropathy. She also manages thyroid disease (resulting from Graves Disease), fibromyalgia, renin-deficient hypertension, and disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis (DSAP) on a daily basis. Kelly connected with other autoimmune arthritis patients via social media in 2008. She began volunteering with the “Buckle Me UP! Movement”, which evolved into the International Autoimmune Arthritis Movement (IAAM) beginning in 2009. Then became a cofounder of IFAA in 2013. She has represented the ACR on Capitol Hill as an Advocate for Arthritis, was a finalist in Wego Health’s Health Activist Hero awards in 2014, and speaks at various healthcare conferences as a patient advocate in the Philadelphia area.

2 thoughts on “How the Current Health Care Debate Affects Me as Someone With Preexisting Conditions”

  1. I am so with you. I cannot even imagine how bad it might be. Sure repeal is pretty easy, I am surprised it did not pass this time. It’s the replace that is the hard stuff. It is especially difficult when the current plan was your plan to start with.

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    1. The thing that kills me is there is so much focus on how expensive the healthcare bill is and what it costs the taxpayers. NO ONE talks about how corporations are making billions off of the illness of others. They are what is driving up cost. Unfortunately, they have the money to line the politicians pockets.

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