Michelle Obama shared company with a Minneapolis woman Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill.
Because of a chronic health problem, Abby Schanfield, 21, has become something of a spokeswoman in Minnesota for the landmark federal health care legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
As such, Schanfield was one of nearly two dozen people invited to sit with the first lady during Obama’s speech.
Schanfield was born with toxoplasmosis, a disease that requires ongoing treatment such as periodic surgeries to replace a shunt in her brain.
She now has health insurance through her parents’ policy. But if she must buy coverage on her own, she fears it wouldn’t be available on the open market because of pre-existing condition exclusions in many health plans.
Starting next year, the health care overhaul will prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions.
“Insurance companies routinely deny coverage to individuals like me,” Schanfield said in a news release. With the federal health law, “this discrimination is a thing of the past.”
Not everyone thinks the law is a step forward for Minnesotans with pre-existing conditions. Those patients have access to coverage through the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association, a high-risk pool created in 1976, said Peter Nelson, director of public policy with the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis.
The pool might be shut down next year because individuals will have access to coverage. The Dayton administration has asked federal officials for a regulatory change that would allow for a phased shutdown of the program over a few years.
“MCHA is a solution that has worked for nearly 40 years now,” Nelson said. “The Affordable Care Act is forcing Minnesota to switch from what we know works to something that is untested.”
Schanfield has said she appreciated Minnesota’s high-risk option but questioned whether it would offer her affordable coverage. Plus, she said, the program wouldn’t help if she moves out of Minnesota because states vary in how they handle coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Schanfield was one of eight women who met in March with the U.S. health and human services secretary in Spring Lake Park to talk about the health law.
Earlier that month, she joined state Sen. Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, at a Capitol news conference to announce legislation to create a state health insurance exchange. Mandated by the federal health law, insurance exchanges will be state-level resources for individuals and small businesses to begin buying coverage this year.
“A lot of the law applies to me pretty directly,” Schanfield said. “So I’m a good example of what it can do.”
Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at 651-228-5479. Follow him at twitter.com/chrissnowbeck.
