My next door neighbor with cancer just told me ACA has saved his life

[NNN0LHI]

He said it to three of us standing in his driveway. Said he is been spending $50,000 per month for cancer treatments to stay alive and he was going to hit the maximum his employer paid insurance would pay by the time ACA kicks in and then it would have been death for him without ACA.

He used to be a Republican. I don't think he is a Republican more. All he was doing was praising President Obama over and over again. It was like he couldn't stop.

Now all he really wants to talk about is Romney's Swiss bank accounts.

The other two Republican neighbors standing there with us had expressions on their face that looked like they were chewing on lemons. They wouldn't even tell this guy they were happy for him like I did.

My neighbor said he doesn't identify himself as a Republican any more. He called it the party of death.

I did not rub it in that he used to be a Republican. Just stood there and mostly listened and watched.

Don

[JNelson6563]

1. Glad but not surprised you took the high road.

"I told you so" would've been a bad idea. Telling him you were happy for him being able to continue treatment was not only classy & kind but smart.

And while the other neighbors didn't like to hear it they can't unring that bell. They will have to think about it and recognize that neighbor could've been one of them or openly choose to disregard it but choose they must. So much easier to just run from a rapidly partisan position if you don't see the human side of the opposite view, as it were.

Thanks for posting this experience Don. I have to believe it's going on all across the country.

Julie

[tallahasseedem]

2. There are real-life implications to the ACA...

These stories need to be told! That being said, I am very happy for your neighbor that he is doing well.

[mazzarro]

3. Wooooow! That is indeed a big blow to the other two

What a way to bring reality to the other rePIGlican'ts. I wish him luck and continued improvement in his health treatment. The other rePIGs, I wil hope, a take a lesson or two from this.

[RockaFowler]

4. More personal stories that actually matter

Look I'm another person who is glad for the ACA. Last year at this time my insurance had a yearly limit of $20,000 for coverage and a lifetime limit of $100,000. I was in the hospital last month for 5 days and the bills are now coming in - almost $85,000 right now. Can you imagine if I had to pay $65,000 that my insurance company refused to pay?? It's frightening to even think now. Because now there are no limits on the coverage.

And on a side note I feel 100% better than before the surgery. I feel like a new gal!!

[NNN0LHI]

5. Happy to hear you are recovering so well

[RockaFowler]

7. Thanks my friend

Gallbladder surgery was painful!! But I felt better knowing that most of bill was taken care of because of ObamaCares!!

[Ikonoklast]

6. And this is the biggest problem with those type of people.

They just.don't.get *it* until *it* happens to *them*.

They lack any sense of empathy to see what others may be going through, the reality only hits home when it, well, hits home.

I am glad for your neighbor, though.

He just woke up the fact that he is one of the 99%.

[RockaFowler]

8. That's it

I said so in a post on Facebook. Everyone cried Socialism. So I always throw Socialism back at them:

Give up your Social Security
Give up your Medicare
Stop driving on the interstate
Don't call 911
Don't watch an over the air TV channel
Don't listen to the Radio

Give up your socialism right now!!

[Ikonoklast]

9. They just regurgitate words they do not fully understand.

Most people in this country want regulated capitalism and a fairly broad social safety network supported by the government (theirs and other's taxes)...they just don't know that they do.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Couple years ago he and his wife who is a nurse tried convincing me reform wasn't needed

They both said all you have to do is go to the emergency room and they will take care of you there for free.

They both tried telling me this with straight faces.

Unbelievable, isn't it?

Don

[Chorophyll]

13. Who did they think paid for the treatment, the Suture Fairy?

That said, I'm glad your neighbor woke up, and even more glad that he's doing well.

[NNN0LHI]

14. They both knew they were talking out of their ass

They just thought everyone was as stupid as they were and would believe them.

Common trait among Republicans.

Don

[Ikonoklast]

17. I hate that people still believe this to be true.

A good friend of my family was the CEO of a large county-owned hospital in a nearby city, and the entire health delivery system that they provided was nearly bankrupted by emergency room use for primary care and the non-payment for that use by indigent citizens.

He had previously been the CFO before being named President and CEO, so the financial position of the hospital was well known to him.

It was decided that he would be the fall guy for the inability of the county commissioners to find either a new source of funding to care for the uninsured, or that the county hospital needed to shut its emergency room doors to the indigent to stop the losses.

So, they fired him because they were idiots.

The county taxpayers ended up paying the deficit to keep the hospital afloat for those unable or unwilling to pay.

How is that 'free'?

[JDPriestly]

20. Emergency room care is not "free."

Doctors and nurses and others, including the janitors, have to be paid.

Equipment has to be purchased and maintained. The hospital building has to be kept up. The place has to pass inspections.

Going to the emergency room for "free" care is actually just making others pay for your care.

If you are going to make others pay for your care, do it with some dignity. Accept government subsidies or charity for your healthcare insurance. But be insured. Pay your way.

To become a doctor in the US, you not only have to have top grades in tough science and math (chemistry, anyone??, biochemistry, anyone???) as a college undergraduate and pass an entrance exam to medical school, but you have to pass interviews.

Then in medical school, you continue to spend long hours in lectures and, possibly, take gross anatomy (dissection of a cadaver) your first year, as well as do practical work in a hospital alongside the doctors.

Then of course there is your residency. The hours a resident can work have been reduced to prevent accidents, but most of the doctors now working spent long, long, long hours without sleep tending patients and learning to practice medicine under experienced doctors in a hospital before they were finally permitted to practice. The length of the residency depends on the specialty of the doctor.

And then there is the life of the doctor after residency. Remember that interview to get into medical school. Well, one of the traits a doctor needs is empathy and that is shown in that interview and in the doctor's written application to medical school.

Your doctor probably took an oath to take care of everyone, to heal the sick and do no harm. The doctors I know personally take that oath very seriously. It's really, really tough on doctors when a patient dies. This is especially true for doctors just out of medical school.

A doctor does not just walk away from work and forget his patients. Doctors take their patients and their cases home with them. It's at home where doctors read professional articles, research their patients' diseases and make sure that the notes in their patients' charts are complete and accurate.

And people think they should be able to walk into an emergency room and demand that their doctor work for nothing. Sorry, guys.

If you can't afford health insurance, ask your boss for a raise. Don't ask your doctor to take a pay cut.

[reformist2]

16. So true, Ikonoklast. So here's the question: Is there any way to teach empathy?

[Ikonoklast]

18. I certainly wish there was, other than the School Of Holy Shit It Happened To Me!

[marions ghost]

19. teach empathy...

I think we need it in this country. People have no concern for others they are not "invested" in.

I suppose the churches think they are doing this...but I'm not sure they do a very good job of it.

And then what of those who are not church-connected?

Empathy IS learned.

[flamingdem]

11. K&R - excellent story nt

[Irishonly]

12. I am very happy for your neighbor

Stories like his need to be told over and over. I agree with the poster who said it was sad so many people cannot understand until it affects them. Unfortunately, we see this over and over again.

[LynneSin]

15. According to some of the recent comments I've seen from GOP politicians -

they would have left your neighbor to die.

If Romney is elected we will have Death Panels. The Government will give the insurance company CEOs full power to decide who to cover and who not to cover and for those covered when to cut them off.

[Downtown Hound]

21. Over time, after the psychotic Republican hysteria over ACA fades and it becomes official law

I think we will hear millions of more stories like this, and it will become more clear to people just what the Republicans are really about, and it's not about saving lives.