South Bay residents to discuss healthcare experiences at upcoming event
Primary Care physician Mikel Calderone examines 37-year-old Braulio Hernandez. Photo
Lori Furth thought she had explained her needs clearly.
Years ago, the Manhattan Beach and her husband were planning to have another child. But Furth, who works as a voice actor, and her husband, who had recently left a corporate job, did not have employer-provided health insurance. So her OB-GYN recommended they speak with someone from an insurance pool for the self-employed.
Furth said she told the agent that they were planning to have another child. But several months into her pregnancy she discovered that buried in the fine print of the agreement was a clause stating that it would not cover maternity care. Pregnancy, her insurer told her, was a pre-existing condition.
Furth and her husband were forced to pay cash for all maternity expenses. After the birth of her child, the “pre-existing condition” disappeared, but their insurance woes did not.
“The premiums kept going up. It got close to $20,000 per year,” Furth said.
All of this occurred before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, in 2010. But it is a story that, given recent political developments, many fear could be repeated. Furth and other South Bay residents will be sharing their stories at an event next week highlighting how the ACA has helped them get by.
The event, entitled “An Evening of Stories: How the A.C.A. saved my A.S.S.,” will take place Monday at the El Segudo Campus of Vista Mar School. Danny Zucker, a Manhattan Beach resident and executive producer of the TV show “Modern Family,” will serve as host.
The event comes at a crucial time for healthcare legislation in the county. After previous false starts, the American Healthcare Act last week narrowly won approval of the House of Representatives. That bill would eliminate the ACA’s tax penalty for people who go without insurance, but would also undo some of its more popular provisions, including the expansion of Medicaid, and limitations on the cost of covering pre-existing conditions. The bill passed before the Congressional Budget Office had a chance to fully analyze its effects, but an analysis of an earlier, similar bill predicted that up to 24 million people could lose coverage if it were implemented.
Organizing for Action, the nonprofit organization that grew out of Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, is presenting the event in order to counteract what they describe as misunderstandings about the ACA, and to put a human face on its statutory provisions.
Manhattan resident Laura Markgraf, an OFA fellow helping to organize the event, said the inspiration for the evening came from The Moth, the syndicated podcast and radio show devoted to storytelling.
“We imagined that sort of storytelling evening,” said Markgraf, a licensed social worker and therapist. “People coming with personal stories of how the ACA had impacted their lives in a meaningful way, to help people in the community to be able to connect on a personal level.”
Among those speaking is Julie Crow. Crow, a Torrance resident and photographer, was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, right as she was going through a divorce. In order not to lose insurance coverage, she remained married to her husband for an additional three years.
She now has health insurance through Covered California, but is worried about the future. And she hopes that, by speaking out, she will be able to draw attention to the impacts of repeal, even in the relatively affluent South Bay.
“The idea that people here are going to be just fine is a stereotype. It’s a stereotype, but it couldn’t be further from the truth,” Crow said.
“An Evening of Stories: How the A.C.A Saved my A.S.S.” is open to the public. The event begins at 7 p.m. at Mar Vista School, at 73 Hawaii St., El Segundo.