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Through the Cancer Lens

October 13, 2013

How the health care law's new insurance marketplaces help cancer patients and survivors 

The stories are all different.  But, the outcomes were the same. 

They or someone they loved could not get insurance for one simple reason - they survived cancer. 

Prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, millions of cancer survivors were mostly uninsurable for individual plans.  The insurance companies simply refused to offer them a policy or intentionally priced them so high that the premiums weren't affordable. 

Now, thanks to the passage of this landmark legislation, that has all changed. 

"The people who were uninsurable are now able to get insurance," tells Marcia, a cancer survivor. 

Chris, another cancer survivor, tells us, "For the first time in our lives, we're going to have options we didn't have before.  It will relieve you to know you can actually have health insurance." 

And then there is Lori, a cancer survivor who is self-employed, who hopes to be the first person in her home state of California to sign-up on the new California insurance exchange.  "After all that I went through when I was sick, now I can have insurance just like anybody else." 

Watch this heartwarming video to understand how this new law is changing the lives of cancer survivors.