by Tom Gallagher
My NCR colleague Michael Sean Winters has correctly pointed out that the Obama administration should have shared with the public case after case of real people benefiting from new or better health insurance as part of selling the Affordable Care Act to the American people. Every day this was not done seemed like a missed opportunity. Now, after the ACA has been in place for just over a year, Los Angeles Times national health care reporter Noam N. Levey has written just one story.
Levey's story profiles Lisa Gray, a 62-year-old self-employed consultant in Virginia who only discovered that her health plan capped prescription drug coverage when she was diagnosed with leukemia in 2013. That prevented her from getting the chemotherapy she desperately needed. Through a mix of temporary measures, doctors and patient advocates kept Gray stable for a few months. But it was a new health plan through the ACA that Gray credits with saving her life.
Gray's story is a fresh reminder that new and better health care insurance changes lives -- indeed, saves lives. It's worth the read and can be found here.
