Edie Littlefield Sundby may not have thought she'd ignite a national debate when the stage-4 cancer survivor asked us to publish her Monday op-ed on losing her oncologist due to the Affordable Care Act. But she certainly has, and it's important to understand why. Mrs. Sundby and millions like her must be denied their medical choices if ObamaCare is going to work as its liberal planners intend.
Mrs. Sundby's seven years of gallbladder cancer treatment have been underwritten by a policy known as preferred provider organization coverage, or a PPO, from UnitedHealthcare. She says she bought the product on the individual insurance market for herself and her family in large part because it offers more choice in medical care. PPOs cost more than health-maintenance organizations (HMOs), for example, but they offer access to more doctors and hospitals.
...The choices she has under her PPO have literally extended her life for seven years.
But in July UnitedHealthcare announced that it is withdrawing from the California individual market, and Mrs. Sundby's policy will be cancelled on December 31....
Dan Pfeiffer, President Obama's chief political spinner, sent out a now infamous tweet on Monday linking to a left-wing website that blamed Mrs. Sundby's policy loss on UnitedHealthcare. The White House default is always to blame the insurers. But UnitedHealthcare only fled the state because ObamaCare's subsidized exchanges are meant to steal their customers. As more people are pulled into government coverage, policies like Mrs. Sundby's are harder to sustain economically, so insurers bail....
The reason goes to the political control that is the animating purpose of ObamaCare....
...Mrs. Sundby's crisis is one story among millions, but it illustrates Nietzsche's aphorism that convictions are more dangerous than lies. Critics are rightly noting that Mr. Obama sold reform with the falsehood that Americans could keep their policies if they liked them. But the scary part is that Mr. Obama and his health planners truly believe that everyone should receive the same medical care and pay for it the same way.
The reason Edie Sundby had to lose her plan is because her needs, and her measure of her own well-being, are different from Mr. Obama's, and that is now unacceptable.
◼ You Also Can't Keep Your Doctor - Edie Littlefield Sundby/Wall St. Journal
I had great cancer doctors and health insurance. My plan was cancelled. Now I worry how long I'll live.
◼ Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer has drawn scorn for his tweet about Edie Littlefield Sundby’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal - NY Daily News
"That's right. Attack a cancer patient. Classy," one angered Tweeter wrote in response to his posting, with another adding "you have to smear a cancer patient for picking the wrong insurance company? Nice touch."
◼ Despicable: WH smears cancer survivor who lost her insurance plan due to Obamacare
@michellemalkin @KristinnFR Also smears an ins co for not being able to 'compete' against insidious forced gov't takeover of ins industry
— Catherine (@museofhistory) November 4, 2013
◼ Cancer sufferer who took on Obamacare slams White House official for 'snotty' tweet, and says Obama's family and staff should all sign up if they support it - DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR/Daily Mail (image source)
Pressed to look over the horizon, Sundby warned that the U.S. is pointed toward reproducing Britain's National Health Service.
'We're headed in that direction, and I don't think it's good,' she told MailOnline.
'The people who come from all over the world and sit with me in the waiting rooms of these cancer centers, they come here because we have the most cutting-edge medical care in the world. And that's so expensive. When we focus too much on cost-cutting, well, there it goes.'
◼ BOOM! Edie Sundby fires back at White House: The biggest loser is trust and respect in government leaders, Watch: - The Right Scoop
Edie Sundby told Megyn Kelly that it’s absurd and condescending for the White House to claim that all insurance plans being cancelled are substandard.
