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Mother Fears Trumpcare’s Lifetime Caps Will Mean The End For Her Chronically Ill Child

It’s like saying, “Sorry, you’re not worth keeping alive anymore.”

Under new bills praised by President Donald Trump, 22 million people potentially would lose their health care coverage.

Before the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, 91 million Americans were enrolled in health insurance plans with lifetime caps. Once patients with these caps exceed their lifetime or annual minimums — usually set at $1 million to $2 million dollars — their coverage would end. Chronically ill people who lost coverage were forced to pay extremely high bills out of pocket, go bankrupt, or deny themselves treatment altogether.


The current version of the Republican-backed Better Care Reconciliation Act, or Trumpcare, would pave the way for insurers to once again set up these caps.

Twitter user Ali Chandra’s 2-year-old son, Ethan, has a condition known as heterotaxy syndrome that causes the malformation and misplacement of internal organs. Ethan has already endured four open-chest surgeries and will likely have more to come. To show how lifetime caps affect families, Chandra shared a recent medical bill which, due to the Obamacare’s ban on lifetime caps, only cost her $500.

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“If this bill is passed, it will depend on how New Jersey government reacts in terms of safeguarding families like ours,” Chandra told BuzzFeed. “Worst case scenario, Ethan will lose coverage or his coverage will become unaffordable — which is the same thing. If lifetime caps are reinstated, we simply won’t be able to afford the out-of-pocket costs without insurance. We would have to choose between his life and bankruptcy.”

Chandra went on to explain the financial pain and heartache that comes with having a chronically ill child.

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