I was delighted when I was
finally able to complete the application process and get enrolled for Obamacare
last May. I had been struggling with
their website since the previous November and was very happy that, for the
first time since 1988, I could afford health insurance.
A few particulars: My wife is out of work, with little hope of
finding even the most menial job, thanks to the shambles the Big Shot financial
gamblers have made of our economy. We
have to get by with the high cost of living in Philadelphia on just my paycheck.
I estimated my 2014 gross would be
around $28,000 at the time I completed my application. (My income
varies depending on work availability, so I couldn’t give an exact figure.)
Based on that, I was pleased to
discover that we could get coverage in 2014 for 53 cents per month. And not just any coverage. We got a Silver plan that had a zero
deductible and low co-pays. The
government paid the remaining $878.32 per month.
It couldn’t have come at a better
time. At 58 years old, I’ve had hip and
back pain for three years which has worsened to the degree that—beginning about
2 months ago—I can only walk about two blocks before the pain is too much to
take. It takes several hours for me to
fall asleep most nights because I can’t find a comfortable position. My wife is five years younger and has several
medical issues as well.
So you can imagine our relief at
finally acquiring health insurance. I
mean, we didn’t even have a primary care physician because we couldn’t afford one. Like many of our nation’s poor and near-poor,
prior to obtaining insurance we went to the emergency room when we had health
problems. It was the only place an
uninsured person could go that didn’t demand payment in advance for diagnosis
and treatment.
True, it’s ridiculously wasteful
and you get some enormous hospital bills with this approach but, like millions
of others in our predicament, you can usually avoid paying charges that you
could never afford (without foregoing
such niceties as food on the table and a roof over your head, that is). It just means you can never again answer your
telephone. (Thank god for voicemail!)
Because my pain wasn’t as bad
last May as it is now, I put off finding a doctor and getting treatment. ‘Hey, I
have health insurance now,’ I reasoned, ‘so
there’s no rush in getting to the doctor.’
My job requires working seven days a week in order to get in my 40 hours
(or less) and my schedule is varied and unpredictable, so I never seemed to find the time to select a doctor and set up an
appointment.
So imagine my shock on receiving the
renewal letter from my insurance company a few weeks ago. In order to keep the same good plan that we had received, I would now have to pay $177.38 per month! The letter suggested two other plans that
cost less: One for $104.89 per month and
the other for $24.05.
The total price—including the
government subsidy—of our plan had gone from $878.85 to $1055.60 per month, an
increase of approximately 20 percent. This
is roughly 10 times the medical inflation rate!
Who knew that the Affordable (sic) Care Act allowed such flagrant
gouging? It appears that Congress and
the President have given the insurance moguls a license to steal.
But that isn’t the worst part,
since the numbers that matter most to consumers are out-of-pocket costs. Well, the out-of-pocket cost for our premium went
from $0.53 per month to $177.28.
This represents a price increase
of 33,449 PERCENT!
Now we could afford either of the
two alternate plans—albeit barely—but get this:
The first has a $12,000 deductible
per year for my wife and me! The cheaper
plan has a $13,200 deductible per
family. We would have unlimited visits to
a primary care doctor for $40 each with the first plan without having to meet
the $12,000 deductible. We would pay $30 per
visit with the second plan—but only for the first three, then the deductible
kicks in.
But we all know how it goes. The primary care doctor must make a diagnosis
which—in most cases (including mine)—would require expensive diagnostic tests
which are subject to the deductible. Then
I would need even more costly treatment by specialists—also subject to the
deductible.
Translation: If I want to get treatment for my hip, I’ll
get the initial visit for $30 or $40, but will have to pay the entire remaining
cost up to either $12,000 or $13,200, depending on the plan. In other words, I would be paying my monthly
premium for what is, in effect, no coverage at all. I can’t afford to impoverish my wife and
myself paying many thousands of dollars to meet the deductible.
OK. Plan B.
I called the people at healthcare.gov in hopes of finding a less
expensive plan from another provider (…and
was kept on hold for 1-1/2 hours).
After reporting my estimate of a slightly higher income for 2015, I was
told I would still qualify for $798 per month.
Good. The bad news was that the
cheapest Silver plan she could find would cost more than $300 per month over
the subsidy.
(sigh)
Very well. Plan C.
The cheapest tier is Bronze coverage.
The best price I could get for a Bronze plan is $94.74 per month. Although it would be a stretch, we could
afford that. Problem is, it has a $10,000 deductible per person! Anything other than a primary care visit is
subject to that deductible. In other
words this plan, like the others, offers no affordable care at all.
In exasperation, I asked the
representative what would be the penalty for having no insurance. She said it is either $650 or 2 percent of
your annual gross, whichever is higher.
For $28,000 income, 2 percent would be $560, so I would have to pay $650
for not getting coverage.
This is painful but, with
Obamacare, I would have to pay the monthly premium and receive no meaningful
coverage anyway. In all but the cheapest plan,
it would cost me less to pay the penalty for no healthcare than to pay the
premium each month (and still not be able
to afford any healthcare beyond the initial doctor visit).
True, it would be cheaper just to
take the plan that costs $24.05 and never go to the doctor unless I could pay
the bill myself (as I have for the last 26 years). But I refuse to do it. Why?
Because it galls me that some insurance company will be sucking up $798 from
our taxes each month and offering NOTHING in return!
I refuse to be the victim of such a naked bait-and-switch con.
While I felt it didn’t go far
enough (I support Single Payer,
i.e. Medicare
for all), I used to be an enthusiastic supporter of Obamacare. But now that I see how they lured us in with
affordable prices only to allow the insurance companies to jack them up to
obscenely high levels, I realize that Obamacare is just another swindle by the
rich and powerful to take away what few coins remain in our pockets.
In reality, Obamacare is nothing
more than a gigantic taxpayer subsidy for the (insanely profitable and corrupt) insurance industry. By forcing millions of citizens to trade down
this year to policies that offer no protection at all, they can continue to
collect billions in subsidies in return for policies that are effectively
worthless.
It’s now clear to me that this
was the plan all along.
So I went from having no health
insurance for 26 years to having to pay $650 per year for the ‘privilege’ of
having no health insurance. Thanks a
lot, Mr. President! Thanks a lot
Congress! In serving your corporate
Masters, you have radicalized me to the point that I am boycotting Obamacare
and urging all within earshot to do the same.
It’s just another tool of the Big Shots for fleecing the rest of us.
And we’re all just about fleeced-out. I, for one, am mad as hell. You?
