Paradise, CA resident Tiffany St. Cyr has a rare disease that is incurable but survivable with treatment, yet she cannot get care because of healthcare changes California adopted in anticipation of Obamacare and corresponding state healthcare changes.
St. Cyr is 28-years old and suffers from Achalasia. It has made her esophagus so weak that she is unable to move food from her mouth to her stomach, basically starving her to death.
The Mayo Clinic says there is no cure for the disease, but its “symptoms can usually be managed with minimally invasive (endoscopic) therapy or surgery.”
This where the healthcare changes come into play for St. Cyr. According to the Paradise Post, “St. Cyr was previously covered under no-share cost MediCal” but on November 1st “was transferred to a managed healthcare plan” that does not cover treatments for her disease.
This transfer to a managed plan took place “pursuant to AB 1467, the 2012-13 [California] State budget.”
According to the California Legislature’s Bill Analysis webpage, AB1467 made certain changes to MediCal to “comply with requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act,” also known as Obamacare. Other changes were made in anticipation of the January 1, 2014 roll-out of Covered California, “California’s own version of [Obamacare].”
But the result of it all is that St. Cyr cannot pay for the treatment she needs to reverse the effects of her disease.
CA Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-3rd Dist.) has taken up St. Cyr’s cause and says he is “prepared to write a letter (to Sacramento)” on her behalf, “asking that she gets the kind of care that she needs.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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