What has become the “Unaffordable” Care Act is now turning on those who have been the face if it’s success. Here’s a new story that belongs in the ObamaCare Screwed Me Over file and then should be sent to MyCancellation.com.
One of the women trotted out as an ObamaCare enrollment success story during the President’s Rose Garden press conference last month has learned she can’t afford coverage because her state exchange gave her incorrect numbers.
The Washington Examiner reports:
Jessica Sanford of Washington state appeared with Mr. Obama in the Rose Garden at the White House on Oct. 21 as the president promoted the new health care entitlement. She beamed with pride as the president read aloud her letter describing how her “stress lifted” after she enrolled in the state’s health care exchange to deal with her son’s medication and doctor visits for an attention deficit disorder.
…
But the state later notified Ms. Sanford, 48, that an miscalculation in her tax credit eligibility meant her insurance premiums would increase from $198 a month to $280. After sorting out that problem, she said she was notified again of a “system error” and given an even higher quote that she couldn’t afford — at least $324 per month, with higher deductibles.
“This is it. I’m not getting insurance,” the single mother told CNN. “That’s where it stands right now unless they fix it.”
…
“Wow. You guys really screwed me over.”
Sanford joins the millions of Americans experiencing the very real consequences of a federal law that has manipulated the market to the benefit of few and the harm of many.
The President thinks ObamaCare just has a PR problem, so he’s trotting out his wife armed with religious one-liners to rehabilitate the law’s public image. But he couldn’t be more wrong.
Americans aren’t stupid; they know ObamaCare is a mess. A new poll finds that a majority of Americans agree that ObamaCare is “fundamentally flawed” even if only a minority think it should be repealed.
A better working website won’t get to the underlying problems with his signature law. A good student of economics knows that when you tamper with the natural market workings you get distortions that benefit few –if any- and harm many.
In this case, the federal mandates requiring that individuals get healthcare coverage (even if they don’t want it) and that employer provide it coupled with new coverage requirements, distort the market and lead to the cancellations we’re seeing today.
Options are a hallmark of our market system. Before ObamaCare came along to “improve” our healthcare system and grant access to more Americans, the healthcare market provided many different options that were tailored (or could be tailored) to the needs of each consumer. If you just needed a basic emergency plan that was cheap, you could get. That’s no longer the case, thanks to new coverage requirements. Instead of expanding options, ObamaCare prompted the adverse, causing more Americans to lose their plans or be priced out of the market. Is this supposed to induce uncovered Americans into buying into this system?
Sanford expresses well the quandary that many Americans will face by next Spring if the individual mandate is not delayed: “Now I have been priced out and will not be able to afford the plans you offer. But, I get to pay $95 and up for not having health insurance. I am so incredibly disappointed and saddened. You majorly screwed up.”