(Augusta) Consumers for
Affordable Health Care (CAHC) is pleased
Governor John Baldacci has signed into law
LD 1620, "An Act to Protect
Health Care Consumers from Catastrophic Medical
Debt." The first in the
nation state law eliminates lifetime and annual caps
from health insurance policies sold in Maine starting
January 1, 2011.
One of the bill's
strongest supporters, Theresa D'Andrea of Limerick, was
even recognized by President Barack Obama in his speech
on health care reform in Portland Thursday. The President
highlighted aspects of national reform that include
similar measures removing caps. However, Maine's
law will remove annual caps in 2011, three years sooner
than when the federal law removes them in 2014.
"Theresa's husband
passed away recently from cancer, and before he died he
hit the lifetime cap on his insurance. As a result,
Theresa not only has to cope with the loss of her
husband but with $60,000 in medical bills- and this
after she already spent all of their retirement savings
on medical care.
Because of this reform a situation like Theresa's
will never happen again in the United States of
America," said President Obama to the crowd of thousands
Thursday.
CAHC brought Theresa
to the rally, hoping she would feel some peace and
satisfaction out of knowing no other families would have
to go through what she and her husband Rocky went
through. We
had tried to make the President aware of the D'Andreas'
situation prior to that, but had no idea until shortly
before he spoke that he was mentioning Theresa and Rocky
in his speech.
"I just know Rocky
is smiling from above. He'd be tickled
by this.
Rocky lived to do good for others-he was all
about volunteerism and giving back to his
community.
We fought for a cause, and put ourselves out
there, our personal details...and we were heard not only
by this state, but by the President. It's really
great to know, in his last days and even after passing,
Rocky was still able to make a difference for others,"
says Theresa D'Andrea.
Rocky was diagnosed
with cancer in fall of 2008. The family hit
the lifetime cap on their insurance plan soon
after. It
left them with a $1.6 million dollar hospital bill after
a four week hospital stay and bills that piled up as
Rocky's care continued. Theresa has worked that debt
down to about $60,000, but she has no savings left, no
retirement and is in danger of losing her home.
"A
lot of people ask why we supported state legislation
that was included in national health reform. It's easy-
national health reform was so uncertain for so long, we
had no idea what provisions would make it into the final
bill. So
for months here in Maine we had been working to make
sure our Maine families were protected when they were
sick and able to get the care they need so that no Maine
families would ever have to go through what the
D'Andreas did.
We are hopeful that other states will adopt the
Maine law to prohibit annual caps before 2014 when the
federal reform removing annual caps goes into effect,"
says CAHC Executive Director Joe Ditré.
A
memorial service for Rocky will be held Monday April 12,
2010, at 10:00 am at St. Matthew's Church in Limerick.
In
lieu of flowers, his family requests donations are sent
to Theresa D'Andrea at PO Box 297, Limerick, Maine 04048 for
distribution to foundations that benefited Mr. D'Andrea
during his
illness.
