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 health care 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 health care 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 health care costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.
But it is not just missing the root causes of our health care 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 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 are going to focus the entire post on the hardships that Obama Care has rained down on Americans across the country and point out which shortcomings of ObamaCare caused their problems. The source of these stories is the website:
1) JOE - NEW JERSEY: Joe Porzio, a 57-year-old construction worker in Wayne, has bought his own insurance through Aetna for years. When he received a letter saying his plan was being canceled by Dec. 31, he began looking at the federal marketplace for new options soon after it went live Oct. 1. He was eventually able to fill out an application, but the website locked him out and he has not been able to access it.
He finally completed a new application last week by phone but, as of Wednesday, was unable to access that one also. “The deadline is approaching, and I’m still in limbo,” Porzio said. “I also found out that my doctors, who I have been seeing for years, will now only accept the highest offered plans. So, it’s true, you have to pay to keep your doctors.”
Obama Care Disasters: Lost access to preferred doctors, current policy cancelled, and difficulty accessing the Obama Care website.
2) DONNA - GEORGIA: Donna Hill in Duluth, Ga., just outside Atlanta, said premiums are 80- to 100-percent higher than those under current policies that offered wider networks
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premium costs and narrow, restricted healthcare networks.
3) LARRY - MICHIGAN: “I sold my business because of Obamacare. I opened my restaurant, Schu’s Grill & Bar, in 1990. There’s no question that the new health law has impacted not only my current business but future projects, too, to the point where I sold my restaurant in January and I’m in the final stages of moving on. I won’t be working in a brick-and-mortar business and putting people to work. I’ve chosen to go into consulting for myself and the ACA was one of the reasons, though not the only reason.
During our busy season, we are well over the 50 full-time employee threshold, which meant we had to offer private health insurance under the new law. As a small-business owner, I don’t have a chief financial officer and the paperwork required would have added probably another 20 hours per month to my accounting staff. We didn’t have the dollars to put into those additional labor hours.
It would have actually cost me all the profit I generated from the restaurant. Profit is not a dirty word. It’s important to survive. Before the ACA, we already offered private insurance to our employees and we paid 50% of their policies, which would have cost us $150 a month per worker. But we hired a lot of young professionals who were 27 or 28 years old and they would opt out of medical insurance because they said they didn’t need it. That’s the irony.
Yes, they extended the deadline for small-business owners to comply with the ACA until 2016. They bought more time, but unless there’s an evolution in the policy, it’s still unacceptable. I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in the Obama leadership but I’m more disappointed in the real problem, which is that Americans don’t really take the time to study and understand what’s really happening in politics. We’re the ones that voted him into office.
Obama Care Disasters: Business crushing government bureaucracy.
4) LEE - OHIO: I recently had to utilize my local ER. Obamacare was supposed to eliminate the use of ER's as substitute Doctor's Offices; however,my experience disproved that. I was there for post surgery complications, but had to wait behind people who complained of a sore throat, a cold, a pain in their shoulder, pain in their shin, an upset stomach, and three headaches. I waited 90 minutes in distress before being attended to. By the way, I was the only patient close to an emergency there...no broken bones, severe lacerations, or head injuries in sight.
Obama Care Disasters: Failure to reduce emergency room visits as promised.
5) DOMINIC - NEW YORK: As a retired information technology specialist, Dominic Saglibene is amazed. First, at the botched rollout of Obamacare website.
Second and, personally more important to Saglibene, at the dollar hit for healthcare he's going to face next year because his company reimbursement contribution will decrease.
It's such a hit, said Saglibene, who knew surgery was in his future, that he "rushed to do the operation now, before the end of the year, so I could get the maximum deductible."
Which leaves Saglibene, of Westerleigh, where?
At home recuperating and pondering what he calls "the not-affordable healthcare act."
After 36 years on the job as an IT specialist, Saglibene retired last year.
He said under the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act, his "retirement medical premium will go up $103 a month beginning in 2014."
Also, said Saglibene, his "maximum out-of-pocket has risen from $6,000 to $9,200 for my family in network, and the Health Reimbursement Account from my company will decrease from $2,000 to only $800."
Added Saglibene: "I have a fixed pension. I would expect our medical needs would go up as we get older."
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premium costs, higher deductible costs, and difficulty accessing the Obama Care website.
6) CHIP - OREGON: I would like to relay a real story about the Obamacare nightmare! My family and I had great Insurance. We got the 3 months extension so we have it up to March 31. I had to have emergency open heart surgery and our deductible is $5,000. Now I had the operation but have A fib, and our insurance will be gone. Our new insurance that is comparable is $306.00 more a month and has a $12,500 deductible! Our out of pocket health bill will be close to $20,000 this year! [ . . .]If you want to use us for an example of how bad this law is please let me know
We need to end this nightmare that they have thrown at us!
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premiums and higher deductibles.
7) DAVID - NEVADA: I was really looking forward to my $2,500 savings I was promised. My total yearly cost instead went up by $2,620 with a higher deductible. President Obama could not have been this far off in his prediction which means he knew he was lying and said it anyway.
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premiums and failure of Obama to deliver his promised $2,500 reduction in premiums.
8) SUSAN - FLORIDA: Our policy last year went from 600.00 a month to 700.00 a month, then we just received a new letter a week ago saying that our policy is going from 700.00 a month to 1050.00 a month, plus raising our deductable from 10,000 to 12,000.00 a year. This start in Jan. We must repeal Obamacare.
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premiums and higher deductibles.
9) JOHN - NORTH CAROLINA: My story has more to do with how many individuals and companies have decided that since they don't like the ACA, they'll use it as an opportunity to justify scalping. My family paid a reasonably affordable plan with BCBS through my wife's employer. When the ACA was enacted, our insurance rate when up almost $130 PER MONTH. This is insane! Also, due to my wife and I just getting married right before all of this happened, somehow the company 'forgot' to add me to the plan even though we'd filed the paperwork two times. When I went to healthcare.gov, I was shocked at some of the prices, and thought I wouldn't be able to afford any insurance and have to pay a fine (to add insult to injury).
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premiums.
10) KENT - NEBRASKA: We had our long time blue cross policy cancelled because it was not good enough for Obama care. The policy we got offered cost us 25% more premium and increased our deductible from 5000.00 year put of pocket to 12,500.00 out of pocket. It had to include crap like birth control and maternity which 50 year old people do not need. To apply for a subsidy we had to give out all of our personal financial data to lord we do not even know who.
Obama Care Disasters: Increase in premiums, current policy cancelled, and forced to pay for health care services that are not needed.
11) ED - OHIO: Even after the administration made hundreds of improvements to the troubled Obamacare website, many people are still encountering difficulty.
Ed Anderson, a graphic designer from Columbus, Ohio, who was recently bumped from his wife’s insurance policy for reasons relating to the new law, discovered that his family’s monthly premiums will double even if he chooses the most inexpensive plan available to him through the new federal insurance exchange in his state.
Anderson said he and his wife currently pay a monthly premium of $460 through Blue Cross Blue Shield. But now that he can no longer stay on his wife’s plan, he will have to get his own coverage. The most inexpensive option would cost him a $428 monthly premium. And he and his wife can’t qualify for a federal subsidy because their joint income exceeds the cutoff. The new insurance policy will cost the Andersons an extra $5,000 a year in premiums alone.
“When you’re trying to keep your house, pay car insurance and put your kid through college, it’s tough,” Anderson said. Everything we do is going to be affected by this. Getting groceries, eating out. Going anywhere. It’s just crazy.”
Obama Care Disasters: Current policy cancelled and increase in premiums.
12) JOE - MICHIGAN: Lost my employer plan and now pay 21.6K per year for a Gold plan with no tax credit or subsidy. The coverage is not as good as the old plan and the premium is 32% of my retirement income after taxes. Obamacare has put our retirement plans in the tank.
Obama Care Disasters: Current plan cancelled, increase in premiums, and restricted healthcare networks.
13) LORI - CALIFORNIA: The Anthem Blue Cross representative who answered my call told me that there was a silver lining in the cancellation of my individual P.P.O. policy and the $5,400 annual increase that I would have to pay for the Affordable Care Act-compliant option: now if I have Stage 4 cancer or need a sex-change operation, I’d be covered regardless of pre-existing conditions. Never mind that the new provider network would eliminate coverage for my and my son’s long-term doctors and hospitals.
The Anthem rep cheerily explained that despite the company’s — I paraphrase — draconian rates and limited network, my benefits, which also include maternity coverage (handy for a 46-year-old), would “be actually much richer.”
I, of course, would be actually much poorer. And it was this aspect of the bum deal that, to my surprise, turned out to be a very unpopular thing to gripe about.
“Obamacare or Kafkacare?” I posted on Facebook as soon as I hung up with Anthem.
Obama Care Disasters: Current plan cancelled, increase in premiums and forced to pay for health care services that are not needed.
So, the next time that someone like Hillary Clinton says Obama Care “is working,” tell them about Lori, Joe, Ed, the rest of the Americans above who are suffering through higher premiums, higher deductibles, lost coverage, coverage that they will never need, lost access to preferred doctors, and the myriad of other burdens Obama Care has forced on the nation. Maybe say a little prayer for them this holiday season as they struggle to cope with Obama Care’s fallout, Lord knows that the Obama family, frolicking on the beach on Hawaii is not going to do so.
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:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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