In an emotional Sunday Wall Street Journal editorial, Ralston College President Stephen Blackwood wrote that Obamacare has made his mother’s cancer battle a nightmare that will “accelerate her disease and death.” He detailed how her Obamacare plan no longer covers the cost of her essential Sandostatin cancer medication, which totaled $14,000 since January 1 alone.
Blackwood said his mother, Catherine, had a “terrific” Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan for almost 20 years until Obamacare canceled it. After navigating the “bureaucratic morass” of enrolling in Obamacare, Blackwood says his mother was informed that “the only way to find out in detail what was in the plan was to buy the plan.”
What happened next, writes Blackwood, was shocking.
“Then on Feb. 12, just before going into (yet another) surgery, she was informed by Humana that it would not, in fact, cover her Sandostatin, or other cancer-related medications,” he explained. “The cost of the Sandostatin alone, since Jan. 1, was $14,000, and the company was refusing to pay.”
Blackwood added, “Obamacare made my mother’s old plan illegal, and it forced her to buy a new plan that would accelerate her disease and death…The ‘Affordable’ Care Act is a brutal, Procrustean disaster.”
As Breitbart News has reported, individuals with pre-existing conditions may face crippling drug costs under Obamacare due to something known as a “closed drug formulary” that does not cover medicines not included on a pre-approved list.
As myriad Obamacare horror stories have emerged, progressives like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have mocked victims’ stories. In a Sunday blog post titled “Health Care Horror Hooey,” Krugman said “the true losers from Obamacare generally aren’t very sympathetic. For the most part, they’re either very affluent people affected by the special taxes that help finance reform, or at least moderately well-off young men in very good health who can no longer buy cheap, minimalist plans.”