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Thursday, February 17, 2011
Insurance a Life vs. Death Matter
By Wendy E. York
Albuquerque resident
There has been a lot of discussion about the new health care law and whether it should be repealed. My thoughts are more personal.
In June of 1993, I felt a lump in my breast. I knew it was nothing. After all, I was 37 years old, worked out regularly and kept a healthy diet. I had never been seriously ill in my life. My doctor sent me for my first mammogram. I had breast cancer. That night as I rocked my 14-month-old son to sleep, I worried that I would not walk him to his first day of kindergarten, take photos at his high school graduation or help him move into his dorm room.
What I did not worry about, however, was whether I would be able to get all of the treatment I needed and whether I would continue to be insured in the future. I have excellent health insurance because my husband was then, as he is now, a federal employee. He has group health insurance. This plan is very similar to the plan our members of Congress have. I knew I was protected.
On that day in June of 1993 I became a person with a pre-existing condition. Without my husband's insurance, I could not get insurance. That fact became real to me when, in 2002, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Without that insurance protection, it is no exaggeration to say that my health and my finances would have been placed at risk through no fault of my own.
Before the new health care bill, an estimated 30 million men, women and children with pre-existing conditions were unable to get insurance. The recent health care legislation changed that. Insurance companies will now be required to insure those of us with pre-existing conditions. The legislation also prohibits the companies from cutting insurance once a person is given a diagnosis that will result in expensive treatment. The provision has already gone into effect for our children.
I owe my life to the incredibly dedicated and skilled medical professionals at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center and Presbyterian Hospital. I also owe my life to the fact that I was lucky enough to be insured.
So as we talk about the health care legislation in the upcoming months, I will be thinking about other young mothers who are receiving the same grim diagnosis I received in 1993. And I will be glad that when those provisions go into effect, the young mothers cannot lose the insurance they have and cannot be denied insurance because of their diagnosis.
By the way, my son started college this fall. I was that proud and grateful mom who helped him move into his dorm.
Wendy York served on the state District Court from 1997-2005. She is currently a full-time mediator and arbitrator with the law firm of Sheehan & Sheehan, P.A.
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