I spent almost three hours this morning walking my favorite urban National Park Service (NPS) site, Crissy Field. While my husband spent the day at follow up appointments at UCSF’s Medical Center, I walked the site, people watched and took some pics. My idea of an awesome morning (for me, not my husband). As I roamed the site I thought about the relevance and impact of health insurance on our lives. Kind of an odd subject to think about during a beautiful nature walk but, my husband is a person who grew up with a pre-existing illness.

A number of us are fortunate to make it to maturity outside of the pre-existing illness category. I suspect that of those who do, many never really give/gave much thought about the implications for people who do fall into that category. The 2010 passing of the Affordable Care Act (nicknamed Obama Care) came with a very important caveat, it eliminated discrimination based on pre-existing illnesses. Illnesses like my husband’s inherited kidney disease. My husband didn’t get the disease because of bad behavior, it came with the cards he was dealt.

Before the Affordable Care Act was enacted into law, insurance companies could reject customers like my husband. Unless, he had an employer who provided group insurance (which he always purposely had). This discrimination pool could also have included customers like our son, who is in top physical shape & health, but now technically has what is classified as a pre-existing illness, all because he donated one of his kidneys to help another. Because of his selfless act, before the ACA was enacted, he could have been discriminated against and denied insurance or charged an outrageous premium. Our son is a very hard working, successful, self-employed consultant who is currently enrolled on our group health plan until this Fall when he turns 26 (another big benefit of the ACA). He is currently successfully shopping around for his own insurance plan to pick him up when the clock strikes on his 26th birthday. Our daughter eeks out a living as a University Teaching & Research Assistant while she completes her PhD; while in graduate school she benefits from the Oregon Health Plan which is connected to the ACA. Without health insurance, our family story and the lives of so many others would have been drastically different.

The moral of this story, be grateful for gifts of all types and never forget how good policy can create positive impact for the greater good. Good policy must surpass bad politics. Enjoy my pics! #iluvtowalk #sanfrancisco #crissyfield #aca #renalfailure #kidneydonor