Statistics on how many people exceed the lifetime caps are hard to come by, but advocates note that the amount of many caps hasn't changed in decades, or at least has not kept up with health-care inflation and the sky-high cost of lifesaving new therapies, making it more likely that people will reach the limit.
and,
Three of Kerry and Chuck Fatula's four boys have hemophilia, a rare inherited bleeding disorder that prevents their blood from clotting normally. All three punched through the $1 million lifetime cap in the Pittsburgh area family's private insurance policy within a few months of one another in 2004, their mother said.
The clotting factor they take to prevent and control bleeding costs about $150,000 a month, and at various times each has been hospitalized for internal bleeding or to treat infections of the ports that allow them to take medication intravenously, Kerry Fatula said. For now, Medicaid pays medical bills for all three. But the eldest, Paul, a senior in high school who physically can do "90 percent" of what his healthy peers can, recently turned 18 and must qualify as a disabled adult to retain federal assistance, she said.
I had some personal reflections on the lifetime cap issue in a previous post here.
1 comment:
Well written article.
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