(Guest column) Proposed 'health plans' will hurt cancer survivors

Editor's note: This guest opinion is in response to the Steve Flowers column published Feb. 27.

As a cancer survivor, I know how quickly you can go from being a healthy person to having a life-changing cancer diagnosis.

When I was diagnosed as an otherwise healthy 40-year-old, my insurance made it possible to afford my cancer care. They may not have wanted to spend the money on the treatment that saved my life, but as health insurance sold in Alabama, they had to. Twenty-three years out, cancer has become a "preexisting condition" for me, and I still have health insurance because I legally cannot be denied.

Some organizations like the Farm Bureau want to pass a law that would create "health plans" (not true insurance), which are exempt from the kind of patient protections that saved my life. The designation would allow them to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, exclude certain medical expenses, impose caps on coverage and even deny cancer screenings.

The Farm Bureau products are marketed as a solution for farmers, yet nearly two in three farmers have preexisting conditions, and these products would not be required to accept them. I married into a farming family, with both of my in-laws having pre-existing conditions. Even if people with pre-existing conditions are accepted, they could be charged a higher premium and not have coverage for care related to their pre-existing conditions.

These plans create a false sense of security for consumers, who may only discover the gaps in coverage when they face a serious illness. I'm asking my elected officials to use common sense and vote against SB84 to keep these junk plans off the market. We should never go back to the day when cancer patients couldn't get health insurance coverage due to their disease.

Cullman, Alabama resident Gary Cornelius is a cancer survivor and volunteer with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society.

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