Ted Kennedy Jr. Speaks of Health Care As the Supreme Court Considers the ACA

"Many insurance law changes enacted by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as the ACA, were long championed by my father, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. His vision to provide affordable health care coverage for all Americans was a personal crusade that he called "the great unfinished business of our society," according to a post by Ted Kennedy Jr. in the Hartford Courant. "What many people may not realize is that my father's passion for universal health care coverage was shaped while caring for me, then a 12-year-old child diagnosed with an extremely deadly form of bone cancer of my leg. His interactions with doctors and nurses, and his waiting room conversations with other parents of children with life-threatening illnesses and disabilities, greatly informed his thinking....What many do not understand is that the ACA has already brought about many life-altering changes to all cancer survivors, both children and adults, as well as people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

• "First, the ACA outlawed rescission — the practice of dropping people's coverage once they get sick — by the insurance industry.
• "Second, the ACA made it illegal for insurance companies to place caps on the amount spent on lifetime coverage costs. This means that children with ongoing medical conditions, such as cancer, chronic diseases and disabilities, will be much better protected.
• "Third, thanks to the ACA, beginning in 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny people coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Read more.

In the New York Times: "Although it would be folly to predict what the court will conclude, policy experts, insurers, doctors and legislators are now seriously contemplating the repercussions of a complete change in course two years after the nation began to put the law into place. Their concerns were heightened after three days of court arguments in which some justices expressed skepticism about whether the full law could stand without the individual mandate requiring almost everyone to have insurance. 'Many of us did not get the bill we wanted, but I think having to start over is worse than having to fix this,' said Robert Laszewski, a health care industry consultant and former insurance executive who opposed the bill." Read more.