Educating Obama on Pre Existing Conditions

In case you hadn't heard, last night was the State of the Union Address. In the hour plus speech President Obama mentioned health care reform for roughly two minutes. The focus during that time was on how nobody could be denied coverage now because of a pre-existing condition. Here is the script taken right from the teleprompter:

Now -- a pre-existing condition used to mean that someone like Amanda Shelley, a physician's assistant and single mom from Arizona, couldn't get health insurance. But on January 1st, she got covered. (Applause.) On January 3rd, she felt a sharp pain. On January 6th, she had emergency surgery. Just one week earlier, Amanda said, that surgery would've meant bankruptcy. That's what health insurance reform is all about, the peace of mind that if misfortune strikes, you don't have to lose everything.

I'm glad Ms. Shelley #GotCovered. But a pre-existing condition is one that a person has prior to purchasing insurance. Her emergency surgery and sharp pain happened after she had purchased insurance.

This was not a pre-existing condition. It would have been covered before Obamacare. Likewise, under Obamacare, if Ms. Shelley wouldn't have purchased insurance on January 1st her emergency surgery would not have been covered on January 6th.

Either President Obama and his speechwriters don't understand their own law or they simply choose to lie about it. If past history is an indicator, my guess is it is the latter.