Oregon mom, an Obamacare supporter, now finds she can't afford it

Monday, January 13, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Obamacare, Oregon mom, health insurance costs

(NaturalNews) Some Republicans in Congress have suggested that, rather than focusing on repealing Obamacare, the GOP should just stand back and allow the law to "collapse on its own."

Well, I've never really heard of a law doing that. But no matter, because support for Obamacare is collapsing, in essence, and the more Americans are harmed by it, the more voters who will likely seek to punish the Democrats who forced it upon the nation.

One of those voters may well be an Oregon mother who was once an Obamacare supporter, but who now finds that she, like millions of other Americans, cannot afford it, as reported by Seattle's CBS affiliate:

One Oregon mother says that she is unable to afford health insurance for her and her 18-month-old son because it's too expensive.

The woman - who wishes to remain anonymous - tells KOIN-TV that she originally championed President Barack Obama's signature health care law because she thought it would help people in her situation.

Well, it's understandable why she and scores more Americans did think that. After all, that's what the president kept saying - how much it will help those without coverage while not affecting those with coverage, both of which, we now know, were huge lies.

"I've been a cheerleader for the Affordable Care Act since I heard about it and I assumed that it was designed for people in my situation," she told KOIN. "I was planning on using the Affordable Care Act and I had done the online calculator in advance to make sure I was going to be able to afford it."

Maybe it'll all work out - but maybe not

The woman's husband works for a non-profit group that pays for his health care, but they are unable to afford to have her and their son covered under his plan.

Also, she says she has been told that, between the two of them, they make too much income to qualify for a taxpayer-paid Obamacare premium subsidy under the state health insurance exchange, Cover Oregon.

"It wasn't until I started the process and got an agent that I started hearing from them I wasn't going to qualify for subsidies because I qualify on my husband's insurance," she said.

Adding that she hoped things would eventually work out, she said nonetheless that she doesn't know how she's going to insure herself and her child.

"I guess I'm hoping that I will find out there's a way around this, but I don't know yet," she said.
The White House has said some 2.1 million consumers have enrolled for insurance coverage through the federal Healthcare.gov and state exchanges. But millions more Americans have been enrolled through the law's major expansion of Medicaid - a provision of the law that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal government could not force states to participate in.

But the Oregon woman is far from the only one who is unable to afford coverage. As I wrote in late October, according to health policy expert Bob Laszewski, about 16 million Americans will lose their current plans because of Obamacare:

The U.S. individual health insurance market currently totals about 19 million people. Because the Obama administration's regulations on grandfathering existing plans were so stringent as many as 16 million are not grandfathered and must comply with Obamacare at their next renewal. The rules are very complex. For example, if you had an individual plan in March of 2010 when the law was passed and you only increased the deductible from $1,000 to $1,500 in the years since, your plan has lost its grandfather status and it will no longer be available to you when it would have renewed in 2014.

Millions of people are now receiving letters from their carriers saying they are losing their current coverage and must re-enroll in order to avoid a break in coverage and comply with the new health law's benefit mandates--the vast majority by January 1. Most of these will be seeing some pretty big rate increases.

'Punishing success'

It is these rate increases that are driving Americans out of the insurance market - even though, by law, they must have health insurance.

But what does a family cut in order to afford a doubling or tripling of the cost of health insurance - a product they may not even use much, if at all (because they are young or healthy or both)? Food? Rent? The car payment? Clothing?

Obama and the members of Congress who foisted Obamacare on the rest of us aren't struggling with their insurance coverage. In fact, thanks to the president, members of Congress and their staffs get taxpayer-subsidized insurance, as I documented here: http://www.naturalnews.com.

No such subsidy exists for all Americans, however - especially those who happen to have been fortunate enough to make a decent living.

Talk about punishing success.

Sources:

http://seattle.cbslocal.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.nationalreview.com

http://www.naturalnews.com