I know a lot of people will say this should be in politics because there is a highly politicized debate going on right now, but I am putting it here because this topic is not about the politics of it but about it's impact on me personally.
11 years ago I had cancer. It was a very treatable and easily cured kind though. It was in a cyst made from thyroid cells. Your thyroid is the only type of cells that absorb Iodine, so all they had to do was remove my thyroid and give me a small amount of radioactive Iodine. Any cancer cells anywhere in my body would absorb it and be destroyed. The only downside (if you want to call it that when compared to dying of cancer) was that I would then have to replace hormones from my thyroid for the rest of my life. This replacement therapy meant i have to A) be on medicine for the rest of my life and B) constantly go to the doctor every 6 months or so to check the levels of said medicine.
Well up until now I have either had insurance through my parents or through my employer. In either case they cant deny coverage for anything medical (at least not anything I have). Recently I have been changing careers and few things haven't worked out and long story short I am now only working part time jobs which pay me enough money but I do not receive benefits. I was just recently coming up on the day where I would lose coverage provided by my old employer, so I started to switch within the same company to an individual plan.
Ok so here is where the problems start. Insurance companies cant deny coverage for something more than 5 years old. Because of this rule I thought I had no problems. Where I screwed my self though was by doing what my doctor wanted and being on the safe side I have had scans which returned nothing bad, but they did reset that date on when the last time something involving my cancer happened. So basically I have not had cancer In more than 11 years but I now cant get health coverage because they fear I am too big of a risk. The worst part is If I weren't as cautious as I am I would not be considered "Too high risk"
I just want to hear other stories (with out political arguments...or at least as little as possible) pertaining to the USofA's health care system
