Fast forward seven years... the day my world was forever changed. In April of 1998. my mother underwent major lower back surgery as a result of degenerative disk disease, that required the insertion of titanium cages in her lower lumbar region. We were hopeful that this surgery would help alleviate the terrible and uncomfortable back pains and mobility issues she had to deal, but unfortunately, we were wrong. Very wrong.
As a result of medical negligence and unsanitary surgical instruments, my mom acquired a MRSA infection within the titanium cages as well as on her hip where bone fragments were taken to be used in her vertebrate. The infection almost took my mother's life. Fortunately, through the swift efforts of infectious disease physicians and experimental medical procedures, my mother survived, but not without permanent damage. As a result of the sepsis, her mitral valves were attacked and subsequently weakened her heart and lowered her bodies ability to fight normal infections. To our dismay, on top of all this, the surgery was a failure and my mother was left physically disabled. She was forced to retire from her job that she loved so much, because she was constantly sick and weak, and could barely work but knew that our family needed health insurance. Unfortunately, because of the costs of her surgery as well as her hospital treatment and stay with her infection, our family hit the lifetime limit, and we were all kicked off her insurance.
At that time, our family was enrolled fully in CHAMPVA insurance. For those of you who are unknowledgable, CHAMPVA is an insurance that is available for 100% totally disabled Veteran's, their spouses and dependents.
Taken from the CHAMPVA Handbook:
Eligibility Requirements
The insurance was a lifesaver for our family because we were all able to be covered, minus dental insurance. Fast forward to college. After age 18, children who are dependents, lose eligibilty for insurance if they ever drop below full time student status. This meant, that even during the summer months, I was enrolled in classes, in order to keep my insurance. Since then, this policy has been better defined, but since graduation from high school, I have consistently been enrolled in full time college coursework, which was extremely expensive and completely unnecessary... for health insurance. However, I did come out of college with two majors and one minor, in four years... so that's one benefit I guess? Anyways, aside from that tangent, let's continue...Requirements for Students (Age 18–23)
To establish student status, and retain CHAMPVA eligibility, an unmarried child between the ages of 18 and 23 must attend school full time. Schools include, but are not limited to, high school, vocational/technical, undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate levels of study. Eligibility can be maintained to the date of graduation or until the 23rd birthday, whichever comes first.
During my junior year of college, while I was studying for the MCAT, the Affordable Care Act was passed, which allowed for individuals to remain on their parents' insurance until age 26 or 27, depending on the state of residence. To me, this was a major relief, because I knew that I would have never been able to afford health care while going to medical school, unless I paid for the student plan with my loans. For a year, I was more than thrilled, thinking it was great, until I realized that something wasn't right. Dependents under CHAMPVA and TRICARE were not included in the reform and thus, just as before, lost their medical insurance at age 23. An even bigger blow occurred when TRICARE dependents were eligible for extension under military insurance by P.L. 111-383, the "National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2011, but no mention of CHAMPVA was made. Sadly, because CHAMPVA used to be CHAMPUS, which was part of TRICARE, many people assume that they are one in the same, but they are not. In addition, because CHAMPVA is a governmental program, in order to make ANY changes to the prorgams, they MUST be changed by laws.
Right now, individuals under 26 who would be considered eligible for health insurance under their parent's plans but cannot because of this loophole in CHAMPVA insurance coverage, have been forced to purchase their own insurance, unlike their eligible peers. To me, this is disheartening and a major blow to Veterans that already are struggling with disability. My family cannot help financially with the cost of insurance at all anyways, because of their own medical and monetary needs, so I have taken the responsibility of myself to ensure that I am covered. For others, this may not be financially feasible, and therefore may be without insurance.
When I found out about this loophole, I was planning on obtaining my Master of Public Health at an expensive private university. I had to make the difficult decision to go to a more affordable out of state public university because I was not accepted to my own Alma Mater for my graduate degree program (Ironically, the only uuniversity I applied to, that I was denied from) in order to pay for my own insurance. Normally, this would have been a non-issue, if I was planning on working full time after college and not seeking higher education, but I was not.
In addition, as I tried to get onto new insurance plans, I was denied coverage for six months because of preexisting conditions. Six months without insurance helping to pay for things that I need out of medical necessity (I have pernicious anemia that requires biweekly B12 injections and CAN be fatal, if left untreated), is extremely frightening and extremely expensive, let me tell you...
I actually found myself seeing if I could apply for Medicaid... Surprise, I can't since I'm without child and educated. Nor was I eligible for a COBRA extension either, because of this awesome loophole.
As an individual who is just starting off in the world with minimal parental financial support, trying to work full time, get through graduate school and work on getting into medical school, even with my extensive knowledge of the health care system, has been extremely difficult. Although I do have insurance that I pay approximately $120 every month for, that still requires me to pay a $35 co-pay and out of pocket prescription costs, I've had to make tough decisions about not going to see a physician unless I absolutely need to. [Ironically, the insurance plan I have now, is cheaper than the plan that is offered to be purchased by older students if they do not have health insurance at my University, because our program assumes that everyone has coverage from parental insurance].
This whole experience has made me extremely passionate about equal access to health care, especially to those whose family has given the ultimate sacrifice to this country to protect individuals and allow individuals to still have their freedom. It sickens me that our country does little to help those individuals AND their families... because his injury doesn't just affect my father, it has affected our entire family. Repeatedly, I hear arguments from people such as "Why would we support deadbeat kids of disabled Veterans anyways?", "I DON'T want to pay for someone else's insurance", "It's your father's benefit, not yours"... blah blah blah. However, just as many individuals with parents who have insurance through their employment, insurance is a benefit of the job of being in the military, and therefore although the employer IS the United States government, still means that everyone should be entitled to benefits that have been legal by recent legislative changes. We still are required to pay the same medical costs and have deductibles and all that jazz, so, really, the insurance plan is exactly the same as any private provider such as Golden Rule. In addition. if an individual becomes disabled during their employment, often their insurance plans will allow them to keep their insurance, up to a cap, just like my mother's did. As a person planning on becoming a physician, equal access to health care is something I am extremely passionate about.
Lawmakers have repeatedly tried to introduce bills to change this loophole, but so far have been at a stalemate. Unfortunately, it probably will never be changed now, because many outspoken individuals HATE the concept of paying for health care for others (This will be a seperate post about why that logic is flawed FYI), and especially hate their taxes being raised by a penny (which it would cost to raise the age to 26). Now that the lawmakers are questioning the legality of the Affordable Care Act, I highly doubt little will be changed, until the rulings are issued. Until then, I will continue to work to pay my way through graduate school and pay for my insurance.
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