Coverage for catastrophic care imperiled by proposed Obamacare replacements

I’m an active and healthy 25-year-old. People like me aren’t supposed to develop life-threatening diseases. But that’s what happened to me in March when I was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia — a rare blood disease. Now that I’m on the other side of it, one of the many things I’m grateful for is that it struck this year, and not after Congress has eviscerated the Affordable Care Act.

Aplastic anemia develops as a result of damaged bone marrow. I had — extreme fatigue, shortness in my local emergency department revealed that I had dangerously low levels of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. A biopsy confirmed that my bone marrow had stopped producing blood cells.