Patients Discuss SCOTUS' Health Care Reform Decision
WAXAHACHIE (CBSDFW.COM) – Day one of arguments over health care reform before the Supreme Court is over –– there are two more to go.
One Waxahachie woman says she's already a nervous wreck over it: The high court is deciding on the constitutionality of the two-year-old law.
Robin Beaton has a lot of time and hope invested into the overhaul on healthcare.
She testified before Congress in June of 2009 that, days before her double mastectomy, her insurance company canceled her coverage because of what they called a pre-exiting condition.
It was acne.
"They searched high and low until they found enough to cancel me. And they did," Robin said
Beaton's insurance was reinstated five months after it was canceled thanks to Congressman Joe Barton (R – Ennis).
But by then, Beaton's breast cancer had more than doubled in size.
"Can you imagine having to walk around with cancer growing in your body, with no insurance? It's the most terrible thing in the world," she had testified.
President Barack Obama told her story to the nation in September of 2009.
"That is heart-breaking. It is wrong and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America," the President said.
Congress passed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March of 2010.
But now, Robin Beaton worries the Supreme Court will kill it along with the provision for pre-existing conditions.
"I want my life to count for people who have pre-existing conditions. So they don't get that taken away from them," she said.
But Paul Bazell, founder of human resources consulting firm Adviant, hopes the Supreme Court throws out the president's health care law.
"I'd like to see the whole thing abolished and start from scratch. Start all over again under different leadership. And, that the government stays out of it," he said.
"The government can barely manage the business they have. And, we're going to entrust them with this giant chunk of the economy that finds its way into the personal lives of every American?" he asked.
Beaton has been battling cancer for four years now. She's still undergoing chemotherapy. Her best friend, Michele Baldassno, is an attorney who is now fighting brain cancer.
"I understand the financial considerations," she said.
"Because she (Robin) didn't get her mastectomy when she was scheduled, her cancer grew in three to five months. What could've been treated less expensively becomes Stage III, Stage IV. Never mind the human toll," she said.
"It costs much more suffering and much more money," she added.
As for those who want the Supreme Court to kill the health care law, Beaton only has one thing to say to that.
"I think people who are against it have never had a family member who's had terminal cancer," she said.
