Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters/ZUMA
Mother Jones reporter Patrick Caldwell is on Capitol Hill today reporting on the upcoming vote to repeal and replace Obamacare. Earlier today, he shared his personal story about his experience with the American healthcare system, and how the Republican proposal could impact people like him.
For more on what’s at stake, head to our explainer here:
I’m at the Hill today covering Obamacare repeal. Yesterday, by coincidence, was my annual appointment at a cancer survivor clinic 1/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
2 weeks from tomorrow, it’ll be 20 years since I was diagnosed w/ Leukemia. As awful as that was, I was lucky: my parents had insurance 2/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
My family went through hell: 3 years of chemo, seizures, near-fatal infections. Then spent years in a wheelchair thanks to nerve problems 3/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
And lord knows all those hospital visits, prescriptions, and physical therapy weren’t cheap 4/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
But again, I was lucky. I had middle-class parents with good employer health insurance. Me getting sick didn’t bankrupt us 5/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
I owe a lot of my politics to fact that if that hadn’t been the case, I might not be alive today. I certainly wouldn’t be able to walk 6/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
According to the CBO—the nonpartisan ref for Congress—24 million fewer people would have that basic necessity of insurance under repeal 7/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
I’ve been pretty healthy the past dozen years, just the occasional everyday sort of problem. But before the ACA, I was still screwed 8/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Even if my health is fine at the moment, years of chemo mean I’m an increased risk for tons of problems further down the road 9/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Every part of my body is a preexisting condition thanks to chemo. No insurer would ever want to cover me on the individual market 10/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Per @pdmcleod last night, House conservatives talked about ditching ACA preexisting condition ban https://t.co/hXGtZBe8G5 11/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Even healthy decades post-Leukemia, I still need to get more extensive health checkups than your average 30-year-old 12/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
At that survivorship appointment yesterday, I got an echocardiogram, EKG, and lots of blood tests 13/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
That’s covered by my insurance. But GOP wants to kill essential health benefits, which could put that sort of coverage in a death spiral 14/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Read @larry_levitt from last night on that death spiral if essential benefits are repealed https://t.co/vboDAbTL3H 15/
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
Anyway, sorry for the long meandering thread. tl;dr: cancer is no fun, but people should at least have insurance to afford treatment 16/16
— Patrick Caldwell (@patcaldwell) March 23, 2017
