Anne Barta was diagnosed with stage four cancer in January 2015, news that devastated her family. Doctors first diagnosed her illness as ovarian cancer, but later determined she had a rare form of the disease that originated in her appendix. They said she might have 12 to 16 good months left. There was nothing more they could do.
So John and Anne Barta sought a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Doctors there attacked the cancer aggressively with a chemotherapy program that stopped the spread of the disease and allowed her to live past predictions. She was able to see her son get married and her daughter enter medical school. She is even able to work part time as an art teacher between treatments.
"We owe it all to her team at Mayo," said husband John. "Her goal is to see our daughter graduate medical school and get married."
But that may now be in jeopardy because of dramatic changes to the individual insurance market.
John Barta, a former CFO of a graphics firm who is now in semiretirement, has heard all the talk about soaring insurance premiums. But he and his wife, a part-time art teacher, planned for retirement and put enough away to absorb reasonable insurance rates and copays. They are not in the MNsure program, but they've quickly learned that the problems are systemwide for the 5 percent of people who buy their insurance independently.
John and Anne recently learned that Mayo will soon be considered outside the network of their provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield. To continue to get the care at Mayo that they believe is keeping Anne alive, the Bartas would have to re-enroll in a plan that has no cap on out-of-pocket expenses. The coinsurance would be 50 percent after the deductible is met. John has estimated his wife's care could be $300,000 next year, meaning he would have to come up with $150,000 a year.
The Bartas seem to have done everything right. They always bought the best health care plan while working, and did so again when John lost his job. The industry has changed on him, and now the Bartas may have to decide whether to continue treatment at the risk of quickly depleting the family retirement savings.
Eileen Smith, director of communications for the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, said that before passage of the ACA, the Bartas would have been able to buy a policy through the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association. The state's high-risk pool, where people with preexisting conditions who were turned down by insurance companies could buy a policy, allowed patients to go to the hospital of their choice.
