UCHealth

Last week I wrote about how my friend Laura Packard, along with up to 44,000 others, is in serious danger of losing access to critically important cancer treatment and other services due to a falling out between one of the largest health insurance carriers and one of the largest medical centers in Colorado:

Denver-area Anthem customers on Colorado exchange forced to switch doctors

DENVER (KDVR) — Laura Packard was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins-Lymphoma cancer in 2017. The 44-year-old moved from Nevada to Colorado in 2019 for one reason: the state’s heath insurance exchange that provides affordable options to individuals who otherwise can’t get coverage.

Doctors at UCHealth have continued to treat Packard to make sure she stays cancer-free.

I first wrote about Laura Packard here 3 1/2 years ago when she was first diagnosed with Hodgkins, though I've known her personally for a good 15 years or so. When she was diagnosed, her outlook was bleak; fortunately, she has since recovered and is now doing great:

In the spring of 2017, I was diagnosed with cancer (stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma). After a grueling 6 months of chemotherapy and a month of radiation treatment, I am in remission. For now. Hopefully forever.

The Affordable Care Act saved my life. But all the time I was fighting cancer, I had to fight my own U.S. Senator and my President in order to keep my health insurance. The day after my first chemotherapy session, the Republican House voted to dismantle the ACA. The “skinny repeal” of Obamacare was voted down in the Senate by one vote a couple days before my 7th chemo session. And the day after my 15th radiation session, I was thrown out of my (former!) U.S. Senator’s public forum for asking him about his health care record.