In 2002, seven years before the current health care reform debate consumed America, 17-year-old Jerome Mitchell made the news when his insurance policy was revoked based on a pre-existing condition cited by the insurance company: HIV.
Today, with our nation in the throes of a high stakes and often emotional health care debate, Mitchell’s story once again makes the news.
Seven years after it first caught our attention, his story now burns anew in the blogosphere, on discussion boards, in the Huffington Post, on the homepage of DIGG – reignited by a Sept. 16 South Carolina Supreme Court decision that ordered Fortis Insurance Company, now operating as Assurant Health, to pay Mitchell $10 million in damages for abandoning him when he needed it the most.
And Mitchell is not alone, as the rest of ‘Pre-existing America’ decided to join him and come out to make their voices heard – all over the Internet.
The Treatment Access Expansion Project (TAEP), a group focused on increasing medical care for low-income individuals with HIV/AIDS, sent out an Action Alert to members to call their Senators to demand that people with pre-existing conditions, in particular the some 1.1 million Americans infected with HIV/AIDS, be included in health care reform.
Robert Greenwald, Director of TAEP and part of the HIV/AIDS Working Group, for which Spectrum has done pro bono work, considered the story to be a reflection of the way the private insurance industry is set up.
“It’s geared towards profit, and ensuring a person living with HIV/AIDS is viewed as a negative in that frame work.”
According to a report by Commonwealth Fund, in the last three years health insurance companies have declined to cover nearly 13 million adults under age 65 because of pre-existing conditions. That’s 36 percent of those who tried to buy health insurance.
Groups fighting to expand coverage to all Americans, such as Health Care for America NOW (HCAN), said that with over 1.1 million persons living with HIV in the U.S., access is difficult.
“Access to private health insurance is relatively rare. Luckily they can tap into a variety of government plans and programs, including the Ryan White Care Act, to enable them to maintain their health,” said Avram Goldstein, Research Director at HCAN.
With health care reform at the top of the President’s agenda, Congress and the public have spent three months arguing about whether to create a public insurance program that would offer coverage to those like Mitchell who cannot access the private market. Although the “public option” has been endorsed in the House bills and included in the two Senate bills, its future is still uncertain.
Where does this leave the 36 percent who can’t get insurance? Back with Mitchell, seven years ago, a time when a pre-existing condition is just another way of saying you’re on your own.
-Erica Anderson, Senior Digital Strategist
