Return of lifetime caps scares chronic illness patients, physicians
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) did away with insurance companies imposing lifetime limits on how much it would spend on a customer’s care. With the law’s future in doubt, however, both patients and the physicians who treat them worry those caps may return.
The Tennessean examined the concerns from several angles. Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, a neonatal physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has seen the caps’ effects in his professional and personal life, when his mother exhausted her $100,000 limit on chemotherapy treatments less than two years after being diagnosed with cancer.
The return of high-risk pools, as advocated by House Republican leaders in their ACA alternatives, could also have lifetime limits. According to the Tennessean, risk pools in 33 states had lifetime limits ranging from between $1 and $2 million.
“When you look at $1 million, you may think that’s a lot, but, in reality, the cost of care is very expensive,” said Kevin Lucia, research professor at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.