One paragraph of Obamacare saved this boy’s life

A baby was born 6 days after an Obamacare regulation — and it made all the difference.

Timmy Morrison was delivered by emergency C-section, weighing in at 3 pounds, 9 ounces. Doctors put him under anesthesia within a week and into surgery within a month. Some of the contents of his stomach sometimes made their way to his lungs. Workers in the intensive care unit frequently needed to resuscitate him. He arrived seven weeks premature — but, in a way, just at the right time.

Six months before Timmy was born, President Barack Obama signed a sweeping health care law that would come to bear his name. Six days before Timmy’s birth, the Obama administration began to phase in a provision that banned insurance companies from limiting how much they would pay for any individual’s medical bills over his or her lifetime. At the time the Affordable Care Act passed, 91 million Americans had employer-sponsored plans that imposed those so-called lifetime limits.

That group included Timmy’s parents, whose plan previously included a $1 million lifetime limit. This Obamacare provision took effect September 23, 2010. Timmy was born September 29. On December 17, he surpassed $1 million worth of bills in the neonatal intensive care unit. He didn’t leave the NICU until he was 6 months old.

If Timmy had been born a week earlier, his medical benefits could have run out while he was still in the NICU. But that didn’t happen. His insurer covered everything. The NICU bills his parents save total just over $2 million (they come out to $2,070,146.94, to be exact).

[acmulhern]

Having a sick child is hard enough without having to worry about how you're going to pay for it.

[zammmerjammer]

WTF is a lifetime cap??? "Sorry, you can only get a certain amount of sick." ...????

[elliem]

every vox comment section is just full of non americans being confused about americans

[jamesbuckwas]

While Obamacare isn't perfect, it has saved lives. We should keep it and then expand on it.

[ICrazySkills]

The very idea of paying for healthcare just blows my mind as a British student. How can anyone, in their right mind, say " We will not help you because you cannot afford it". It is simply inhumane

[ionaf]

When she said $773000 for the first two and a half... I was expecting her to say YEARS not months. Honestly crazy to me, I appreciate I am so privileged to live in the UK and have the NHS available to me.

[hundredandahalf]

"I'm sorry, you can't live, that is too expensive"

[shantishalom]

Even in Mexico, all this would be free. Healthcare is a right

[Crystal]

Oh, what a sweetheart.

It's crazy to me that Conservatives are always preaching how fetuses have 'a right to live', but want to take away the help families like this rely on so that their kids *can* live. You can pick a stance, but at least be consistent.

[thaitichi]

Thank you President Obama! You are a hero to so many people.

[Cambridge]

1 million dollars in around 3 months for healthcare is unfathomable to me, there is no way that that is near the price it costed the health care providers to take care of the boy. The amount that big health care corporations are profiting on the weak is disgusting, they seem to care more about making a lot of profit than actually helping people.

[Dan-omno]

Free health care is a human right. Thank god I’m Canadian

[mark]

So not only health insurance in the US costs ridiculous amount of money but you also have a lifetime limits, once you pass it your insurance company will leave you to die.
Tell me more about the benifits of private healthcare...
The government should provide available healthcare to all of its citizens as a right.

[KnowArt]

I won't make dark humor comments today

[DoncasterAMusic]

Three words:
DON'T
REPEAL
OBAMACARE!

[aidanrozema]

Watching in 2020, I'd like to see Vox come back to this story, and what happened.

[derekkeng]

Why is there a lifetime cap in the first place? Isn't that the point of life insurance?

[tcsam]

The insurance companies should never have had the authority to decide when to cut off paying for treatment for anyone. It was a disgrace that it was ever legal. The idea that Trump and some members of the GOP want to return to those days is horrifying. Insurance companies should not get to decide if someone is worth paying to keep alive.

[hammer]

Just take a second to imagine if Trump was the one with a tube in his throat.

[mekrystle]

My baby was born at 24 weeks, weighing just over 1 pound. We spent 112 days in the NICU at the end of 2014. She is a "million dollar baby" and worth every cent. I'm beyond thankful for the ACA; that we did not have to think twice about her coverage or cost in the middle of life and death moments in her first few months. Legislators, please understand that these are human LIVES and livelihoods at stake and not just health care numbers to dismiss!!