My Obamacare story. Why we need #FullRepeal!

I have asthma. Asthma is a chronic yet easily managed disease. I have been taking the same medications for years to control my symptoms. I have not needed to see a pulmonologist (asthma doctor) for the past several years. I saw one recently, primarily because my health insurance company is not covering my medications any longer. These are medications they saw fit to cover last year and the year before and the year before that.

I have private health insurance, not ObamaCare exchange insurance. It is individual and small group coverage. I pay 100% of the cost of the insurance. It is essentially the same plan with the same health insurance company that I had last year, except it is more restrictive and more expensive than last year’s plan.

My pulmonologist is a scientist at a university hospital conducting groundbreaking research into the genetic component of chronic airway disease. Yet, since President Obama decided that the blue pill works as well as the red pill, my doctor is forced to spend part of his day writing letters to insurance companies explaining why some patients need the red pill.

I live in a state that created an ObamaCare exchange. My insurance company participates in the state exchange though my plan is not an exchange plan. Nonetheless, the drug formularies are identical, not similar but identical. Consequently, even though Washington, D.C. regards me as a millionaire and billionaire since I can afford to purchase my own health insurance, I am forced to live under the same rules as those whose health insurance I am subsidizing. Equality really does mean poorer care for all. Just ask veterans who are dying while waiting for treatment at the VA.

The irony of being treated by a research physician is that even if my doctor creates a breakthrough treatment to cure chronic airway disease, a condition that afflicts millions of Americans, I will never be allowed enjoy its benefits. In fact, I suspect no one will.

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