Robert P. Casey Jr.United States Senator for Pennsylvania

The passage of the Affordable Care Act eased the worries of the Ritter family from Lancaster County. The family’s two 12-year-old twin girls, Madeline and Hannah, were diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a rare cancer, at the age of four. The twins quickly neared the million dollar cap on the large group health insurance policy they had through their father’s employer. A hospital social worker recognized the pending situation and helped the family enroll the girls in Medicaid to cover the additional costs.

Today, the twins are living the full and active lifestyle of teenage girls and are able to appropriately maintain their health. Madeline and Hannah cannot be denied coverage in the future due to their pre-existing condition, and no longer have to worry they will again near annual or lifetime insurance limits.

Their parents, Stacie and Ben, said: “Our daughters, Hannah and Madeline, are both childhood cancer survivors. As cancer survivors they require a lifetime commitment to follow-up care; care that is vital to their leading long, healthy, and productive lives. Our family has already faced one medical bankruptcy after the girls had stem cell transplants in 2003. Most recently, we had to fight with our insurance company for coverage of vital medications. These are problems we hope no American will have to face under the new Affordable Care Act.”

“The new legislation is not perfect, nor does it claim to be. What it does do, however, is protect our children from insurance company discrimination based on their pre-existing cancer condition, makes illegal the rescinding of policies due to pre-existing conditions, and provides better preventative care, just to name a few.”