- FrontPage Magazine -
http://www.frontpagemag.com -
ObamaCare Supporters Starting to Sound Like Abuse Victims
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On February 11, 2015 @ 10:28 am In The Point | 17 Comments
As much as I hate these people, on some level I’m starting to feel sorry for them. They remind me of Communists in the Gulags who still think Stalin cares about them. Or abuse victims who keep defending their abuser.
The latest comes from the New York Times.
WHEN Karen Pineman of Manhattan received notice that her longtime health insurance policy didn’t comply with the Affordable Care Act’s requirements, she gamely set about shopping for a new policy through the public marketplace. After all, she’d supported President Obama and the act as a matter of principle.
Ms. Pineman, who is self-employed, accepted that she’d have to pay higher premiums for a plan with a narrower provider network and no out-of-network coverage. She accepted that she’d have to pay out of pocket to see her primary care physician, who didn’t participate. She even accepted having co-pays of nearly $1,800 to have a cast put on her ankle in an emergency room after she broke it while playing tennis.
But her frustration bubbled over when she tried to arrange a follow-up visit with an orthopedist in her Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield network: The nearest doctor available who treated ankle problems was in Stamford, Conn. When she called to protest, her insurer said that Stamford was 14 miles from her home and 15 was considered a reasonable travel distance. “It was ridiculous — didn’t they notice it was in another state?” said Ms. Pineman, 46, who was on crutches.
She instead paid $350 to see a nearby orthopedist and bought a boot on Amazon as he suggested. She has since forked over hundreds of dollars more for a physical therapist that insurance didn’t cover, even though that provider was in-network.
The obvious problem there is that Karen accepted a series of abuses, including trading her policy for a worse and more expensive policy without abandoning her support for ObamaCare. It doesn’t appear that she blames Obama for this.
Karen’s support for ObamaCare helped make life worse for everyone. But it also made life worse for her.
But admitting that would be going too far?
But with the Republicans attacking the Affordable Care Act at all turns, even political supporters seem reluctant to acknowledge that it has some flaws.
If you admit that ObamaCare wrecked your health insurance, the Republoterrorists win.
We’ve got people willing to accept any abuse, willing to shell out thousands of dollars for worse healthcare, rather than admit that the whole thing was a mistake. They’ll vote for Hillary while secretly hoping that she’ll fix this without ever admitting it.
Some comments are slightly blunter.
Dawn Prevete Atlanta
Like many of the Americans you interviewed, I’ve called my insurer, talked to a broker and spoken with representatives at healthcare.gov, but see no solution other than paying more and getting less.
Keeping my old plan means a premium increase for next year of $2400 per year, more than $65% above the current monthly cost, but the options on the exchange are no better.
A very nice young man at healthcare.gov who discussed plans with me said, “it wasn’t supposed to be this way,” acknowledging what many of us who supported the law have learned.
I was troubled by the President’s new budget and the idea that new Medicare beneficiaries also must have more “skin in the game”, ignoring the fact that Medicare has no out-of-pocket cost limits. The target is the Medigap policies sold by AARP and others that allow seniors who don’t enjoy retiree benefits to access healthcare without fear.
It’s the same concept that runs through the ACA. How sad.
But of course the comments are full of Single Payer advocacy, because apparently it’ll be better when everyone is waiting 2 months to get an x-ray.
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine:
http://www.frontpagemag.comURL to article:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/obamacare-supporters-starting-to-sound-like-abuse-victims/
