PocoLoco wrote:
What a boat, what a ride, what a fantastic week! I *will* go for another cruise
on the "Disney Magic", regardless of the number of kids aboard!

The service, food, entertainment, and atmosphere were much more than I expected.
I had taken three paperbacks to read, along with a new Nikon D70 book, to read
rather than be bored.

I finished none of them.

However, we had some bad news waiting for us. My older daughter underwent an MRI
which showed three breast tumors. Biopsies showed two to be benign, but one is
malignant. Now the younger daughter is very concerned, and wants to have a test
of her genes to determine if she inherited the BRAC1 or BRAC2 gene from her
mother, who died of 'abdominal' cancer. She, however, is concerned that if the
test comes back positive, she will lose her health insurance. Has anyone ever
heard of that?

--
John H

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant:
It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Ronald Reagan


Oh crap, John. Very sorry to hear about your daughter. (I had no idea
you were a widower).

In what state does your daughter reside? I would think each state
insurance commissioner and statutes will vary just a bit on what her
patient's rights are going to be. My sister-in-law, at age 56, has
consumed a few million dollars worth of medical care (seriously) due to
a heart condition. She has reached the "lifetime maximum" with a couple
of companies- but just her good luck, each time she does the
organization she works for changes hands and she gets a "fresh start".

Odds are that her current insurance company cannot just dump her, but
if she ever loses coverage due to firing, layoff, company bankruptcy,
etc she might, in some cases, have some difficulty getting a private
policy on her own. Several years ago we passed alaw in Washington that
said people who lost group medical insurance had the right to buy
private insurance (at a market rate) and could not be turned down for a
pre-existing condition. Several insurance companies left the state as a
result. (Good riddance).

Best wishes for your daughters successful treatment and a full
recovery. They are treating cancer far more effectively than ever
before- but even so it's a rigorous and demanding course of treatment
and it won't be easy for her.

Tell your younger daughter to get an annual mammogram, (if she isn't
doing so already), and to hope that some of the very latest news about
a promising "vaccine" to prevent breast cancer might bear fruit.