Obamacare will save the life of Stacey and Caleb Lihn’s daughter Zoe, the couple told Lawrence O'Donnell Monday.
Stacey Lihn won admirers across the country last week when she spoke movingly at the Democratic National Convention in support of Obamacare. “If Mitt Romney becomes president and Obamacare is repealed, there is a good chance she’ll hit her lifetime cap,” Lihn told convention-goers, stressing the need to maintain Obamacare’s ban on lifetime coverage caps. “There’s no way we can afford the care she needs to survive.”
Zoe Lihn was born with a heart defect. At just two years old, she’s already had two open-heart surgeries. She’ll need another in a year or two, at which point she’d likely reach her lifetime cap on insurance coverage—long before she can even vote.
“She has a chronic condition, she’s going to need care for her life,” Stacey told O'Donnell on The Last Word Monday. “Those medical bills just keep adding up and adding up and it’s frightening to think about her appeal and losing that coverage.”
Caleb Lihn said the fear of losing insurance coverage for Zoe is “always in the back of our mind, sometimes in the front.” Meeting the cap and going uninsured be “devastating” for the family, he said, sending them into bankruptcy and putting their family of four on welfare just to keep their daughter alive.
“I’d never spoken to an audience before,” Stacey Lihn admitted to O’Donnell, when asked about her emotional plea for Obama's reelection.
Romney, who recently said he wanted to keep some parts of Obamacare, then backtracked, has said that the free market would ensure coverage for those who’ve reached their limit.
“That’s just absolutely not true, that would be great if that was true,” Stacey Lihn said, as her daughter clamored for attention. Once Zoe reaches her cap, "I don't see anyone saying I'll cover that child."
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A compelling story and issue. Next time, a photograph of the child should suffice.
Oh God, no. White Liberals would be sent into fits of blubbering and wailing. No one wants to see that.
It was a horrible display of gratuitous tearjerkiness. Of course we all feel bad for her and her kid, but the DNC used her as an ideological hostage/political human shield, as they are so adept at doing.
Their convention was one big freakshow of victimhood.
"Vote for Obama, or Stacey Lihn's daughter will die. And a cute puppy will get curbed."
Jack... you are on the right track. It is disgusting how the DNC uses people for their benefit. It is how they see us.... pawns in their game.
Jack, you are very mistaken. Stacey is a mom who is fighting for her courageous daughter's life and other ill children. My daughter too has HLHS and without Obamacare my daughter faces a lifetime cap and an uncertain chance at life that she so deserves. Do you know what it is like to watch your child face endless open heart surgeries, to endure more in such a short time than any of us in our lifetime? Do you know what it is like to have every waking moment filled with worry not only about the health of your child but also the absurd healthcare system that keeps us from getting the care we need? No one should have to struggle to get the care needed for healthy and life that we are all entitled to regardless of political stance. THIS IS WHAT WE LIVE WITH DAILY. I HOPE THAT YOU NEVER HAVE TO WALK IN OUR SHOES.
I said of course we all feel bad about these things. But ObamaCare is not the panacea people think it is. It will suck our economy dry.
The reason the health care system is absurd is because it has always been saddled with government bureaucracy.
Our Medical Care System is damaged and dysfunctional in several ways, but as a nurse married to a clinical pharmacy director who both work at a regional medical care facility I can tell you the blame lies squarely on the private insurance industry and big pharmaceutical companies. For profit medical care has emphasized profit and increasing census to make money for investors. The care and welfare of the patient and doing what is morally right is father down the list of priorities. People like us do not choose a lifetime career in the medical field to make money. We do it because we truly and sincerely want to help people. These HLHS Moms and many other families like them should never have to worry if money will ultimately be the cause of their loved ones demise. No it's not Obama Care that's the enemy of our economy it is corporate greed and a bloated military machine with big corporate contracts doing nothing more than making a few congressmen and investors rich off of war. (By the way I have a son in the Marines too so don't go bashing me there) YES "we feel bad about these things" but the difference is WE know there is no reason not to offer treatment and care. Money should never be the issue in a healthcare decision. I hope you never have to decide if a loved one lives or dies because you can't afford the treatment.
Health care is a cost, and it needs to be treated as such. That's the harsh reality. A million dollars may save an infant, but that same million dollars could also save ten adults.
A choice will always have to be made. Yes, kind of like the one Bill Styron wrote about, but no government program or law or initiative can change reality.
If you can't put a dollar figure on something, then you are saying it's "priceless." And that means that in actual practice, the thing is worthless.
I am also a heartmom. My daughter was born with HLHS, Turner's syndrome and hyperthyroidism. I have watched my daughter struggle and almost lose her life as she awaited an absolutely necessary heart transplant. I feel for this family. I understand the fears and heart wrenching situations you face as a parent with a "heart" kid. However, I DO NOT agree with ObamaCare or electing Obama. We chose our private insurance to not have a lifetime cap. Are we paying more for it, OF COURSE! But that is they way it goes. Also, disability benefits are available for OUR children. Along with public assistance health care. There are options. I find it sickening that the democratic party used this story as a tear-jerking ploy to make Obamacare sound WONDERFUL. Yes, it is a very emotional story. It is a very emotional journey (as I am very VERY aware). However, the government needs to keep its' hands out of my healthcare and let ME, the parent, decide what is right! Not to mention, that if Obama had HIS way, he say TERMINATE the pregnancy. DO NOT let this "fetus", as he calls our babies, survive. They are too broken!
My daughter also has HLHS (Failed Norwood Heart transplant) 1st off - I hope your daughter is doing well. Now why did you get insurance for your daughter that had a lifetime cap. HLHS doesn't just sneak up on you. We found our daughter had HLHS 5 months before she was born. You have 1 month to get insurance for your child after she was born. HLHS even if not caught before your child was born would be caught in the 1st hour to 2 days after birth. Did you not read what you where signing her up for. My child is close to the 2 mil mark and we do not have a cap. I do have to pay a good deal extra for her insurance but that is a sacrifice my family has to make. I do not need obamacare to make smart choices for me or my family. I can do that on my own.
This is not about a child being left to the wolves because of a lifetime cap being arrived at. I have a grandson born when my son was on unemployment with no insurance at all. His life span was estimated to be 3-5 years because of his brain condition. In November he will turn 20! I am not saying it was easy but my daughter-in-law fought for her son and he has received excellent care. There are many programs & groups that will help. The number of programs, state, federal and private is out of this world. The last thing is that if anyone thinks that Obamacare will have no limits and will pay for whatever someone can get a doctor to perscribe is just not living in the real world. There will be limits and procedures which will not be covered.
Things cost what they cost. When Obama talks about "keeping costs down" he's being full of baloney.
Costs cannot be controlled. PRICES can be controlled and manipulated, but all that does is distort the market signals.
And yes, health care IS a market. You can say "PEOPLE ARE NOT COMMODITIES" all you want, but it doesn't change anything. There is a market for health care, and to deny that is to deny the very laws of physics, never mind economics.
Ah, here's another "because I said so" sort. Insurance companies have been putting the screws to medical care providers by negotiating--via strong arm tactics--what they will reimburse for services.
That's actually driven up the cost for those who've paid for them themselves.
And the waste in the American Health Care System was well-documented last week with uncounted billions being lost.
Physics is physics, and economics in economics is economics, gonzo.
And hey, I remain open to negotiation on the price of a cab ride in certain circumstances. You're over your head here.
Recognize America! These are lies to coerce a vote!! It's illogical and naive to think that 11 million more people will have coverage via a gov plan that already does not take care of the disabled and elderly in this country!! I too am an HLHS mom. My son is one of the eldest survivors of this severe congenital heart defect, and currently 19yrs old. In our residing state of Florida, the mortality rate for HLHS is extremely high. FACT: Without private pay/comprehensive group insurance, my son would have been forced to have his reconstructive surgeries within our high mortality state, where there were NO survivors. After the negligence suffered due to being sent home undetected, kidneys and liver failing, arriving in Philly at 5 days old in a coma right lung collapsed, doctors advised me that my son would not have survived if we remained in FL. Physician's quote "OMG, they butchered your baby." Each reconstructive surgery was experimental and totaled $250K. So yes, a million dollar baby. Lots of babies are born with defects to parents who max out. I feel the cost $3K per bed/day is too high! The physician performing the surgery was paid a measly $5K. That's it! I have every EOMB! However, you get what you pay for! REMEMBER: Not all physicians are created equal!! Not all deserve equal pay. Numerous physicians already opt out of gov plans and/or choose to retire early, than recieve no pay after the high cost of schooling. My son is alive bc I afforded the best! Jack Blair is absolutely right!! I agree 100% that this country is headed for a fall if we continue to be misled. Obama has flip-flopped on every issue he promised in 2010. Under the Obama plan, my son could have coverage on my plan until he is 26. Unfortunately, I no longer have an ins plan. He is NOT under 19 and therefore considered preexisting. He is unable to maintain gainful employment due to his disablity. Upon reaching adulthood, he has now been denied state SSI disability, and his appeal denied. Further, since the Clinton reform, my son has been micromanaged under an HMO, which refuses to release him to skilled physicians knowledgeable in the rare defect! Appeals to be released to straight medicaid, have been denied! The Medicaid Reform Choice Counselor recently advised me, "You need to call the governor, this HMO is going to kill your child!" Please look again America! I firmly believe the true intentions of this President is not the welfare of our children, but to impoverish the working class making us dependent on our government, collapsing this nation. This is a quick scheme for control of the ecomony and its people. Currently taking away our constitutional right to protest, and next our right to bear arms.
"I firmly believe the true intentions of this President is not the welfare of our children, but to impoverish the working class making us dependent on our government, collapsing this nation. This is a quick scheme for control of the ecomony and its people. Currently taking away our constitutional right to protest, and next our right to bear arms."... 100% agree!!!! Well stated Chrissie. Prayers to you and your warrior! You are clearly a strong mom! Keep your head up and keep fighting!!
Children who are catastrophically ill and/or disabled are not jettisoned from medical care, there are charitable children's facilities, and SSi applications and Medicaid provisions besides other assisting state medical coverage that kicks in if their health insurance coverage lapses, or is non existent. So making the statement the ObamaCare "saved their daughter's life" is not really true, if dramatic.
At what cost have these early changes in health insurance been made, however. Last year, a 9% increase in the average family's and individuals health insurance premiums, and this year another 4%, so much higher than the cost of living and the cost of medical services increases. And this at a time as was negotiated that so much more of the premiums for health insurance have to go to delivery of services, and less for salaries and bonuses, advertising, administrative expenses and capital investments, such as new IT investments. The average family's health insurance premiums have already jumped over $2,000 a year, just two years after the passage of the (Un)affordable Care Act. President Obama claimed we would have a decrease of $2,500 a year on average in those premiums. That seems to be a swing of over $4,500 in the wrong direction! What went wrong? And better yet, how can we fix it. Because the work of fixing it is going to have to be done, as the Supreme Court struck down several important and interlocking components of this poorly convoluted, and often unnecessary legislation, and the remaining provisions can not operate to "bend the costs" of medical care lower, as was promoted, not without the ability of the Federal Government to coerce states to adopt federally modeled insurance exchanges internally and establish federal exchanges, and coerce the states to expand Medicaid programs, for example. Then there will be the forthcoming Supreme Court challenges on whether or not the federal government can force churches to provide health insurance that make available free oral contraception, surgical steriliztion, and abortions on demand, or for the federal itself to supply tax payer paid subsidies to individuals and families for health insurance premiums for such coverage, the abortion portion of which will be exceptionally difficult under the present Henry Hyde amendment to the appropriations rule that bars the use of federal dollars to support abortion.
Friends of mine eagerly awaited the birth of their first grand-child. Well, they got twin girls. One baby has the exact same condition as Zoe. However, our Hospital for Sick Kids, in Toronto, has conducted all operations, all tests, provided a nurse daily for the first three months, weekly visits, ongoing daily medications, etc. Not a dime have they spent on this care. In Canada we like our healthcare system, well, most countries in the world have the same system as we do in Canada. Its sort of like a group that all pay into so that those who are sick can receive care. In other words a Health Insurance Company who cannot gouge the consumer.
Of course there are flaws, our whole government is flawed... the key point is banning the life time cap with the crooked insurance carriers/providers. That is what she is fighting for. Not everyone qualifies for SSI and other assistance programs. If you do qualify it does not get you the right care one needs. I know this from our own experience.
From my experience, there has been many people I have dealt with in my career that have capped out at there lifetime max or are very close. Some of you just don't understand how fast one can reach that. Just being on dialysis or something like that can get you at your max. A large # of policies only have a lifetime max of $1,000,000.
I was glad that the Lihn family had the courage to speak out publicly about this as this is ONE of MANY things in the healthcare reform that needed addressed. Hats off to the Lihn family for speaking and I wish your daughter well in the future.
From what I have seen and heard, many republicans just simply do not understand these issues until they are faced with a disaster. It is prettty sad, but that is the truth. Either that or they are just being ignorant as some of the comments noted above. (like Jack)
I would like to ask why Dick Chaney was able to have his second heart transplant surgery because he would be well over his max lifetime. But, I guess because of who he is, he is treated differently ?? Maybe he used some of your republican campaign funding to pay for it, who knows?
But, like you said above, the money used on his heart transplant could have gone to save other young children's lives................
going back and reading more---Chrissie, why doesn't your child qualify for SSI? From what you are saying above, he is completely debilitated and unable to work. This is all the more reason that pre-existing conditions are so very important on application for insurance. If these are not denied, your child should be able to get insurance....
Keith and Chrissie--there are children's charities like St. Jude's in Memphis. Unfortunately, for some that is an unreasonable solution for families to take off and have to be there all the time. Medicaid in most states will qualify these children in time, but then we get back to the same old argument that who is paying for this---the taxpayers. Most hospitals have an eligibility service area that helps on bills, but again, someone down the line has to help out to pay for the others that can not afford it.
There needs to be some kind of resolution and this is what the republicans do not understand!!! There are alot of situations such as one of them described here with Chrissie and the Lihn family, but what do you do about it?
What do you do with the one in five people that show up to an ER that are self-pay? What do providers do when even the small reimbursement from a payor (even insurance) does not even cover the cost of the service provided?
I just know that insurance companies will try their best to get out of paying for services. Yes, services are expensive, but there again, the physicians deserve payment. Hospitals deserve payment and have a lot of expenses that aren't recognized and have to be covered (high overhead).
This is why I sit here and feel frustrated as the republican party does not want any government control or at least very limited control, but yet how else can you do it but set some kind of limitation on charges and payments, and insurance company policies ?
I have seen so much in my positions that it would make your head turn sideways........
I used to know a nurse in Memphis, Nurse with experience. You aren't a strawberry blonde by any chance are you? I do recall she leaned a little left, but I compensated for that! LOL!
The average family (not family’s) health insurance premium has increased a total of $1975 from 2010 to 2012 – actually 3 years of increases. It has not “jumped over $2,000 a year”. The average worker contribution of the premium has increased a total of $962 dollars from 2010 to 2012. (The balance being paid by employers.)
2012 $15,745 up 4% $4316 (Employee contribution of premium)
2011 $15,073 up 9% $4,129
2010 $13,770 up 5% $3,354
The following graph shows the trend of premium increases from 1999.
http://ehbs.kff.org/?page=charts&id=1&sn=12&ch=2690
http://www.kff.org/insurance/ehbs-archives.cfm
"We had previously given the Republican National Committee Three Pinocchios for an ad that had focused on the single data point — the increase in premiums from 2010 to 2011 — and blamed all of the increase on the health care law. Now the Romney campaign has quadrupled the same error in an effort to claim that “health premium costs are $4,893 higher per family than President Obama promised.”"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/romneys-whopper-claim-on-an-obama-health-care-pledge/2012/07/03/gJQAVhk3IW_blog.html
The Affordable Care Act was signed March 23, 2010 and has a 4 year rollout.
Not all family health insurance comes thru employers' programs, with their benefit of group rates. Many individual families, especially those of small business and professionals buy their family health insurance on the market, and their premiums are therefore considerably higher, and must be factored into you equations, Adam. And this is before the bells and whistles Washington, DC designed insurance policies are mandated under ObamaCare are mandated to the employers, and the internal state or forced federal insurance exchanges in the separate states.
The statement was "average family's insurance premiums" that question was answered.
If you would like to phrase a new question I would be glad to research it for you.
no Keith, not me............ :)
Should let you know and in my opinion, the insurance companies have raised rates on people, because they know that they are going to have to buckle down.
If all people have to purchase insurance, then this should lower everyone's premium but the insurance companies aren't willing to lose their millions in profits yet. That is why they are playing these games of raising rates and deductibles on people. Their attorneys started looking in to how they can avoid the laws before this bill even passed. If anyone can't see how they are working for themselves for profit, they are very blind.
There HAS to be insurance company reform also (such as this year people receiving money back) because they ARE making millions and will continue to take advantage of people whenever they can. I have seen it many times.
That is another reason why the republican plan would never work with vouchers. They are then giving all the control to the insurance companies, much like republicans giving all the money and power to the very wealthy.
Another frustrating observation by myself---I have heard President Obama state and ask several times that his health care reform is not perfect and that it did need work to make it perfect. But, not one republican has stepped forth with an ammendment to help it. They are all just sitting back stating they want to kill the entire bill.
Why won't they work for the people to make this better?? To me the republicans are so racist and ignorant to get rid of Obama instead of working with him. Sick---I think the Congress should all be dismissed without pay until next year because they obviously are not going to do anything. A waste of our taxpayer money. And their paychecks can go towards reducing the deficit.........
The insurance companies were given from passage of this bill of goods in 2010 to 2014 to engineer their increases in their rates. And they got a heck of a jumpstart in the first year with that whopping 9% increase in premiums across the board, Nurse with experience.
Do you at least have the sexy southern drawl, and a liking for bourbon & barbeque and blues music down and dancing down on Beale Street?
I am very happy for the child and family, but I have to say that none of my health coverage had caps. I was willing to buy the better policy even if it meant working a second job. I loved my family enough to work for them and not depend on the rest of us through taxes to pay for my insurance. I know this sounds cruel but if she or her husband loved their child so much, why didn't they have the better coverage? Now there will be rate increases across the board for those who refuse to pay their own way.