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| The Ritter Family: Marlboro County, PA |
Motherhood prepared Stacie Ritter for more than any woman could ever imagine. When I met Stacie Ritter speaking to a sizable crowd on the steps of the Supreme Court on March 27, 2012 advocating for the PPACA, I met a mother on a mission. I soon discovered that the advocacy training of this mother of four was unknowingly thrust upon her 10 years prior when her twin daughters, Hanna and Madeline, were diagnosed with cancer at the age of 4. Now age 14, Hanna and Madeline looked with admiration at their mother that morning. It had been a long road to get to this point.
In 2002, Stacie and Ben were embracing the American Dream. Married for a few years, they owned a home in Marlboro County and were beginning their family with a set of twin girls, a toddler and another baby on the way. No parent can imagine the fear and horror of being on the receiving end of a doctor’s diagnosis when you are told your children have cancer. Stacie and Ben lived that nightmare-bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy and radiation. Unbeknownst to them at the time, this nightmare was a multi-part series.
Within a few months of treatment, the girls reached the lifetime caps allowed by many insurance plans. Prepared for this possibility, they purchased secondary insurance through the State’s CHIP program. Ben ultimately had to take an unpaid medical leave from his job in order to take care of his two sick daughters, a toddler and a pregnant wife. In order to make sure the rest of the family was not left without health insurance, he took out a COBRA plan at the cost of almost $800 month. With the cost of the COBRA plan, a mortgage, groceries, electricity, gas and other monthly expenses, the family went through their savings and all their assets in less than one year and ultimately filed for bankruptcy. While Stacie and Ben were filing for bankruptcy, the health insurance industry recorded a 162% profit for the first quarter of that year (weiss).
This is the state of healthcare in America.
In fact, half of all bankruptcies in the US are triggered by costly medical expenses (Warren). Most would presume that these individuals are uninsured, however, the reality is quite the opposite. According to Health Affairs, 60% of those that filed for medical bankruptcy in 2005 were insured (Himmelstein). Stacie describes their medical bankruptcy like many others that have been victims of a broken healthcare system, “until you’ve been there, see it and feel it, people don’t understand the reality of this issue”.
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| Political contributions of America's Health Insurance Plans during the healthcare reform debates |
While the girls experienced a remission from their cancer, the nightmare wasn’t over. A few years later the girls began to experience problems with their pituitary and hypothalamus from the radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which required an expensive prescription. It was covered by the family’s insurance, but when Ben’s company switched plans they ran into problems. Even though it was recommended by their world renowned endocrinologist, the insurance plan denied coverage. For months, Stacie and the physicians fought for the girls. They administered unnecessary tests requested by the insurance company and the physicians wrote 4 letters of appeal that were denied each time. As the Ritter family and their doctor’s fought to get the girls the care they needed, the national debate to reform our health insurance system began to heat up. In 2008, the health insurance industry spent $7,540,000 in lobbying and $617,200 in direct contributions to members of congress (opensecrets.com).
This is the state of healthcare in America.
As the years passed, the Ritter family stayed very active and involved in the National debate for access to fair and affordable healthcare. They testified before the house steering committee for healthcare reform. While not perfect, the passage of the PPACA in 2010 has given them some relief and offers them some basic consumer protections, protections that they did not have along their journey. One very important protection is the elimination of the Lifetime Cap. Additionally, because the twins now have a pre-existing condition, they are grateful that in the future they will never be able to be turned down for health insurance. Furthermore, until they are independent adults, they will be able to stay on their parent’s plan until age 26. The family sees the medical-loss-ratio as a success for consumers like themselves because insurance companies will have to spend 85% of their premiums on care and not profits, administrative costs, advertising and lobbying.
Even after its passage, the Ritter family continues to advocate for an issue and law that the general public has very little knowledge about. On March 27, 2012, a full decade into this family’s battle for fairness in the health marketplace, Stacie and her family took their last stand. On the steps of the Supreme Court they made an appeal before an army of press and spectators.
From the beginning of time, mothers have gone to great lengths in order to provide the basic necessities for their children. Stacie Ritter’s journey to care for her children brought her to the steps of the highest court in the free world.
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| March 27, 2012 Meeting the Ritter Family in Washington DC |
See a recent Video featuring the Ritter Family
1 Weiss Ratings, December 18, 2002
2 The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt; by Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School and Smith Business Solutions
3 Himmelstein et al. Health Affairs, 2/2005
2 The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt; by Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School and Smith Business Solutions
3 Himmelstein et al. Health Affairs, 2/2005
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