Doctors For America

Since we worked for the same hospital system, I dropped my Blue Cross insurance and went onto my wife's policy. A few years later, I contracted a rare soft tissue malignancy called gastrointestinal stomal tumor. I started on a medication called Gleevec, which currently costs over $6000 a month but for which Blue Cross paid the vast majority. In early 2008, my wife developed lymphoma that was resistant to all chemotherapy. In 9 months she exceeded the "lifetime cap" of $1M in benefits after an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant. She died early in 2009, leaving me without insurance and with several hundred thousand dollars in health care bills. With the diagnosis of GIST, I am uninsurable, paying a premium for COBRA benefits that will expire before I'm eligible for Medicare. "Harry and Louise" could lose their insurance instantly at no fault of their own.