Thank You, Barack Obama!!

This picture is the picture of my check. A check for what you ask? A refund check. From whom you ask? Is it a government handout? Did someone pay back a loan you gave them?  No, this is a check from the private entity that is my health insurance company. I actually teared up when I looked at this check. No. Really. I got very emotional. For the first time in YEARS, I was getting something back from my health insurance company. I have paid out literally tens of thousands of dollars in premiums over the years and tens of thousands of dollars in uncovered medical procedures. My second pregnancy was only covered up to $4000; FOR ALL OF IT. For every test, all doctors visits, the times I had to go to the hospital because I thought I was going into premature labour, and the actual delivery itself. $4000 is all...they....covered. 

I have fought with hospitals because I had been assured they would pay for the MRI test that my doctor said I needed to take to make sure that I didn't have a brain tumor because I was suffering with significant, quick onset double vision. When you start to see double out of the blue, and the doctor has checked everything, the last thing to do is to check to see if a foreign body is growing in the brain, thereby causing the sudden change in vision. My insurance wouldn't cover the test and the doctor said he would take whatever the insurance company would pay (which would be $250 and the test was about $2500). The hospital forgot about that promise even though it was written down in their computer. I fought back and forth with this hospital for TWO YEARS.

I am healthy. I eat right. I take care of myself. I never asked anyone for anything. I paid for my own health insurance so my family would be a burden to no one. It has been a thankless and expensive position to be in for a long time. At one point, my premiums were equivalent to my child's monthly daycare payment.  I have struggled mightily to be independent but it's always been a struggle…a battle…an uphill fight.

For the first time in my adult life, I had a company give me back some of the money I paid  - - without a battle...no struggle, no uphill fight.  I didn't have to ask. I didn't have to cajole. I didn't have to be nice to the person on the phone so they would move me to the appropriate person to handle what I needed even though I was mad as hell cause I had to put out money that I didn't have in the first place. As stipulated by an element of the Affordable Health Care Act - - aka Obamacare - - which has recently come into effect, if the company doesn't use my premiums for 80% of actual medical care, BY LAW they cannot pocket the rest for profits and have to give it back to me.

There are some who don't like the Affordable Health Care Act that Barak Obama passed. I am not one of those people. I am thankful. Truly thankful.