It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:
- Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
- Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, and other unhealthy additives.
- Americans smoke too much.
- Americans do not exercise enough.
- The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
- Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
- Obama Care never “followed the money”to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
- Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
- Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.
But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.
These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care., To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.
Today we will focus solely on the many hardships that Obama Care has caused average everyday Americans. The source of their grief is the website: www.oourhealthcarestoriescom
CHRIS, CALIFORNIA: From CBS Sacramento: A Sonora mechanic is in so much pain that he can barely walk, but he can’t seem to find a doctor to fix his ailing back after he and his wife switched their insurance coverage through Covered California.
Chris Dunn reached out to CBS13 hoping we could get answers.
He needs his surgery yesterday. But instead of scheduling his date, he and his wife are navigating a confusing maze of doctors and insurance plans.
We get this coverage and go to the best doctor to fix Chris, and they tell us we’re out of network said his wife Tammy.
In January, they transitioned from an Anthem Blue Cross Plan over to Blue Cross Covered California. She says they had to switch to avoid the premium skyrocketing, but didn’t realize their provider network would be smaller.
MARTIN, CONNECTICUT: Connecticut psychologist Martin Klein has plenty of experience dealing with insurance companies. After all, he's been practicing in the state for 11 years and runs two offices, one in Branford and one in Fairfield. But his experience with insurers over the past couple months has surprised even him.
Since 2008, Klein has held an insurance policy from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut, the state's largest insurer. The policy offers what he considers comprehensive coverage at a reasonable price. It does not however, meet the minimum coverage criteria set by the Affordable Care Act.
On September 26, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield sent Klein a letter notifying him that his plan would no longer be offered for renewal when it expires in January.
Losing his insurance plan is a big financial blow for Klein. He makes just enough to not qualify for a subsidy on the health exchange, but lives in a New York City suburb where the cost of living is high. Based on his research on and off the exchange, Klein says he would have to pay 50% more to get a plan that he deems comparable to the one he is losing.
Klein says he cannot afford a comparable plan, so he has decided to purchase an HMO with a $12,700 deductible for himself and his family.
What concerns him most about the plan is that it limits him to a narrow network of providers, all of which are in Connecticut. This prevents him from keeping some of his doctors in New York City.
Basically, said Klein, he's going to accept his new policy and, "hope nothing major happens."
JAMIE, KANSAS: From DallasNews: Even with pricier plans, some consumers have access problems.
James Potts’ $647-per-month silver plan was issued by the same company that had insured him with a different plan that was canceled under the Affordable Care Act. The 64-year-old property insurance agent assumed his doctors would remain the same under the insurer’s new plan, but didn’t double check.
When Potts got a nasty cold, he called three facilities near his home in Wichita Falls and was shocked to find none took the insurance, including his primary care doctor.
“It was a waste of money for me,” he said. “I couldn’t find doctors that would talk to me.”
JULIE, NEW MEXICO: Last June, Birch received a letter from Lovelace Insurance warning her that her coverage would be terminated. However, it told her to wait for more information before she did anything. The months rolled past and no phone call came. She paid her premium in December, assuming everything was sorted out. However, on January 4, 2014, she was told her insurance was cancelled and she would have to log onto the New Mexico healthcare exchange. So she did.
After spending two hours filling personal information into the ever-growing ACA database, the system stopped her from enrolling her children. It needed to determine if her sons were eligible for Medicaid. The error message promised that a state representative would contact her, but no one has. When she tried to call, the wait was 45 minutes.
Birch wasn’t eligible for the marketplace’s Platinum plan, but the next best thing – the Gold plan – offered her comparable care for $519.23 a month with a $3,000 deductible—an increase of over $175 a month with no coverage for her children caught in Medicaid limbo.
Her frustration escalated not because the cost increased and her children were uninsured, but because none of the plans let her keep her primary care or orthopedic doctors.
"This is just downright unacceptable," Birch said. "You develop relationships [with doctors] for a reason."
JOHN, MICHIGAN: Retired, after 42 years, on a fixed income and my health insurance is provided in part by my previous employer.
Also raising my granddaughter who graduated college last week.
In January, 2014, my health insurance premium INCREASED 20%, a $1650 annual increase. Who's getting all this additional money? That's $1650 I'm NOT spending on my family's other needs. Thank you Democrats!!
As stated in the letter from my previous employer, the reason for the increased premium was solely attributable to Obama Care. Additionally, my plan's deductibles and co-pays also increased. We are now reluctant to visit the doctor at all due to the outrageous costs! That's comforting.
At a time in our lives that I can afford it the least, my government, in their infinite liberal wisdom, forces me to pay more so the minority; the 15% of people that don't have and choose not to have medical insurance are somehow covered.
The lies spewing from this crazy administration about the benefits of Obama Care are outrageous and cannot stand!
PATRICIA, MINNESOTA: In order to keep my monthly payment the same, I had to raise my annual deductible from $3,000.00 to $5,000.00. I also lost the three times each year that I could go to the doctor for a $30.00 co-pay. I also lost the flat fee I paid on prescriptions of $10.00 for generic and $25.00 for non-generic. These items I now pay from dollar one. This conceivably could cost me a lot of money each year.
DEBORAH, CALIFORNIA: From the LA Times: "All we've been hearing the last three years is if you like your policy you can keep it," said Deborah Cavallaro, a real estate agent in Westchester. "I'm infuriated because I was lied to."
Supporters of the healthcare law say Obama was referring to people who are insured through their employers or through government programs such as Medicare. Still, they acknowledge the confusion and anger from individual policyholders who are being forced to change.
Cavallaro received her cancellation notice from Anthem Blue Cross this month. The company said a comparable Bronze plan would cost her 65% more, or $484 a month. She doubts she'll qualify for much in premium subsidies, if any. Regardless, she resents losing the ability to pick and choose the benefits she wants to pay for.
"I just won't have health insurance because I can't pay this increase," she said.
LIONEL, LOUISIANA: Baton Rouge public relations consultant Lionel Rainey said Wednesday the price of his health insurance will double even though he rarely makes a doctor’s appointment.
His policy is among the 92,793 individual insurance plans that Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon reported would be discontinued because the coverage does not meet the coverage standards set by the federal Affordable Care Act.
Rainey’s plan didn’t meet the minimum standards but he was happy with it.
“I don’t go to the doctor much. This was the plan that fit me and fit my lifestyle,” the 35-year-old said.
Rainey declined to name his insurer, but he said the new policy will cost him nearly $600 a month. He said he also will get coverage he does not need, such as a maternity plan.
Rainey put plans to expand his business on hold when he got the letter from his insurance company.
He wanted to hire an additional person but is unsure whether he can afford it.
As a newlywed, he also must buy insurance coverage for his wife, a full-time graduate student. He does not qualify for subsidies for the exchange.
NANCY, NEW YORK: Anchor: Many people in the Rochester area lost their healthcare insurance January 1st--they're among the millions across the country who saw their plans cancelled under the Affordable Care Act. Nancy Miller is one of them. A self-employed hair-dresser, she'd began doing research in September to make sure she'd be covered this year, but she then learned the health plan that she had for years was no longer availabl the other options were too expensive. Miller has some health issues that require medication and tests: treatments she's delayed because of a lack of insurance.
Nancy Miller: I'm not going to lose my house because I don't have health insurance and I need medical assistance. So I'm down in the dirt, I can't do anything, I can't go to the doctor, I can't get my tests run, I can't go for an MRI.
DEBRA, IDAHO: I found out I don't make enough to qualify for subsidy, nor can I afford to buy insurance that costs over half of what I make each month. I fell between the cracks. Plus I also will end up paying a penalty for no insurance. This is horrible!
LARRY, CALIFORNIA: Among those suffering sticker shock is Livermore real estate broker Larry Waelde.
Like many others, he believed Obama when the president said people could keep their existing plans if they liked them. But Waelde said his existing $773 monthly premium for his family of four will more than double, based on rates he has reviewed on the state's online insurance exchange.
"The damage has been done," said Waelde, an Anthem Blue Cross customer who doesn't think he's among the 104,000 whose policy cancellations will be delayed.
Waelde said that Obama's public apology over the cancellations last week helped, and he is holding out hope for "some sort of remediation."
Another month and another set of Americans whose lives were decimated and disrupted by Obama Care, the worst piece of legislation ever passed by Washington. More disasters next month.
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
No comments:
Post a Comment