Phoenix woman meets with Trump at White House to discuss Obamacare battle
Mar 14, 2017, 10:20 AM | Updated: 1:16 pm
President Donald Trump greets, from left, Kim Sertich, from Arizona; Elias Seife, from Florida; and Brittany Ivey, from Georgia during a meeting on healthcare in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
PHOENIX — An Arizona woman met with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the White House this week to discuss her personal battle with Obamacare.
Phoenix resident Kim Sertich said she has tried to discuss her problems with the health care system for years, but Trump’s administration was the first to listen.
“I was grateful that somebody heard my story and wanted to listen because I have been screaming from the rooftops for years – writing letters to my congresswoman, senators,” she said.
Sertich said she received a call out of the blue from White House officials inviting her to visit and meet with Trump, Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. She later learned a group who had heard her story gave her name to officials.
Sertich said her coverage was canceled three times under the Affordable Care Act. The first cancellation came within one year of the health care reform bill becoming law.
“I had a plan that was not in compliance,” she said. “It did not have some of the things they had to add to the plan.”
Sertich said she switched to a plan with higher deductibles and other costs that met the law’s requirements, but that was canceled when the company opted to leave the marketplace.
When she signed up for a third plan with a different company, that plan was canceled after that company chose to leave the marketplace.
Sertich was part of a group of 10 or 11 people, along with a few doctors, who discussed their own issues with Obamacare. She said a lot of comments were focused on public confusion about the law.
“It’s hard for some people to understand the individual market and separate it from employer health care or Medicaid,” she said, adding that the doctors said some patients had issues understanding how their deductible worked.
The meeting came as the Republican Party works to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one of Trump’s primary campaign promises. Though the party’s plan received some unfavorable numbers from the Congressional Budget Office on Monday, Sertich said something needs to be done about Obamacare.
“What I don’t understand is people who don’t think anything needs to change. I’m wondering if they don’t know about people like me,” she said.
KTAR’s Lauren Grifo contributed to this report.
