Ouch Rosie!
DW and I are cyclists too. Very sobering story. I hope you've made a full recovery.
If you care to share, I'm curious as to how the crash happened. Any lessons learned?
Yes, I did make a full recovery, thanks! I'm told I hit a rough patch of pavement while I was going downhill at ~ 30 mph and went over the handlebars. I remember none of it, thankfully.
But back to the topic at hand ...
The following year, when I left my j*b and started consulting, I tried to obtain health insurance on my own. By that time I had completely recovered from my injuries and had resumed all my normal activities, including bike riding.
Mind you, this was in 2010, before the ACA was implemented.
I first applied to Blue Shield CA, the company who insured me on my employer's plan. They turned me down *flat*. They said I "did not meet their underwriting criteria", and they provided a list of all the treatments I had the previous year, on account of my accident, to justify their refusal. Basically, being in an accident was tantamount to having a preexisting condition.
I applied to a couple of other insurance companies, who likewise turned me down, on account of the treatments I received the previous year due to my accident. I cannot begin to tell you how stressful this was for me.
At least Kaiser, who also turned me down initially, told me that I could request reconsideration of my application. So I trooped to all the physicians who treated me the previous year -- GP, spine doc, ophthalmologist, PT -- and they very willingly wrote letters describing my treatment and recovery, stating that I had fully recovered from my injuries, and rather subtly assuring Kaiser that my prior accident wouldn't cost them going forward. And next thing I knew, the Welcome to Kaiser packet arrived in my mailbox.
Like I mentioned, this was before the ACA went into effect. I was perfectly healthy yet I had a helluva time obtaining health insurance. If I hadn't recovered fully from my accident the previous year, or if I had any condition more serious than, say, a hangnail,
I probably would have been unable to get coverage and I would have basically been screwed. Like so many others were screwed back then.
So whenever I see some politician ponderously proclaiming that he or she would repeal Obamacare, I sprout fangs & grow hair on my knuckles and flash back to all the hoops I had to jump through to get insurance pre-ACA, and how fortunate I was to finally obtain it.