MY STORY, AT LAST!

My story.

In the Summer of1984, when I was eight years old, I got hit by a car. I had a closed head injury/traumatic brain injury, a blood clot removed from my brain, a traceotemy to breathe, a nasal feeding tube and a bone in my right leg was broken in two places, requiring ultimately a plate to be put in my leg because it was growing back improperly and putting the leg in traction did not correct this. I was in the hospital for about three months and after my release attended five years of outpatient physical and occupational therapy (from the waist down and from the waist up is the simplest way to explain the difference between the two). In the summer of 1985, when I was nine years old and the bone was fully healed, I had the plate taken out of my leg although one screw had to be left in or there was at least a risk of the bone re-breaking. I have not been an overnight, even just one night,patient in the hospital since the summer of1985, although of course at times my therapy was in a hospital and I have had other family members in the hospital through the intervening years. At the time of my Accident we had F.H.P. Health Insurance through my dad's work, and they were very gracious about helping to pay for my treatment. Eventually, I reached a point where the therapy seemed unnecessary and so I discontinued it. I continued to have Health Insurance through my dad (although with different carriers) until I was twenty-five and so as things were in 2000, too old to continue coverage through him. I then shopped around for my own Health Insurance and eventually settled on a company called Golden Rule. In their application they asked what major health issues I had had within the past five years, and since in 2000, when I was twenty-five, 1984, when I was eight, was considerably more than five years ago, I did not mention it. Everything was fine until, at age twenty-six, I dared to actually make a claim. It was for a leg brace to help with a tripping problem that had only quite recently developed. When I filed this claim they dug approximately eighteen years back, found my accident and canceled my coverage. The letter you can see elsewhere on my blog. When I called seeking clarification I was told had they known about 1984 they would not have issued the policy, despite the fact that my overall medical history over the past then eighteen years did not in any way suggest that I would be an any more expensive patient than someone who hadn't gotten hit by a car eighteen years earlier,since once I quit therapy my only regular expense was an annual basic Physical. After Golden Rule dropped me, I looked at several other Health Insurance Plans, including one known as World, but when I did disclose my car accident, since I then knew they would obviously search until they found it if I ever dared to actually make a claim, they all denied my Application. Today I am covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield through the Texas Risk Pool. While this is certainly far better than nothing, Texas Law requires that it always be twice as expensive as comparable, private coverage, which severely limits the amount of my money I can invest elsewhere in the economy. Additionally, I must prove every year that I am still ineligible for any other coverage, and if I am late with this proof, I cannot reapply even to 'The Pool' for a year, which would leave me with absolutely nothing for a year if I was out of town, say on an airplane trip helping their business, when the form arrived and did not return until after the deadline had passed. Under a key Provision of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Golden Rule or World or any other private insurance company that I chose to apply for coverage to could not deny me coverage because of my 1984 car accident starting in 2014. I am not asking for a hand out, I am quite willing to pay for my insurance, but why should I be denied the opportunity to shop around for the best rate? Isn't that what a 'free market' is all about? Why do so many of The American People, particularly Republicans, think that that is such a bad thing? Am I somehow un-American or even subhuman because I have a traumatic brain injury and one screw left in my leg since extracting it would have re-broken the bone? Do I not count as a Citizen with Rights because a car hit me when I was a little boy? Am I thus denied The Right to “Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness”? Should I just kill myself and rid the country of the burden giving me the right to shop for decent, affordable health care will somehow generate?