Tuesday, December 13, 2016

These Trump Voters hope ObamaCare isn't Repealed.

Republicans had a masterful health care disinformation campaign. The truth didn’t stand a chance.

But when Trump fails miserably with "reform," and premiums skyrocket, the crap will hit the fan. The Vox series highlighted that point below.

Trump voters had the most convoluted reasons for their decision to “shake things up,” and I'm afraid that no matter how bad things get, it’ll never be bad enough.

The unsettling thing for me is how my health care security can be so easily flushed down the toilet by people who just don't get it, and voted for Trump:
Kathy Oller (was) committed to her job signing up fellow Kentuckians for Obamacare … The uninsured rate has fallen from 25 percent in 2013 to 10 percent today … success in Whitley County and across Kentucky hasn’t translated into political support for the law … 82 percent of Whitley voters supported Donald Trump, even though he promised to repeal it. Oller voted for Trump too. “I found with Trump, he says a lot of stuff … I just think all politicians promise you everything and then we’ll see” … they did hear the promise of repeal but simply felt Trump couldn’t repeal a law that had done so much good for them. 
Republicans have also succeeded in convincing people envy can be a good thing. 
Part of their anger was directed at other people who were getting even better benefits — and those other people did not deserve the help.
Frightening Example: First, the biggest flaw in Medicare reform is making seniors shop for insurance at a time when their mental abilities are diminishing with age. But as I found out, normal everyday people also seem confused by the system. That's why universal care makes so much sense. We won't be making bad health care decisions:
59-year-old Ruby Atkins’s Obamacare coverage just renewed. Atkins and her husband received a $708 monthly tax credit, which would cover most of their premium. But they would still need to contribute $244 each month — and face a $6,000 deductible.
But Atkin’s doesn't know that almost all insurance plans use higher deductibles now, a trend started a decade before ObamaCare; Atkins doesn't know Republicans are pushing high deductible insurance; she oddly complained that her Marketplace insurance costs are similar to what she used to pay.
Atkins said she had insurance before the Affordable Care Act that was significantly more affordable, with $5 copays and no deductible at all. She said she paid only $200 or $300 each month without a subsidy.

The deductible left Atkins exasperated. “I am totally afraid to be sick,” she says. “I don’t have [that money] to pay upfront if I go to the hospital tomorrow.”
And this is the biggest flaw about HSA high deductible plans; self-rationing that doesn't make any sense:
Atkins’s plan offers free preventive care, an Obamacare mandate. But she skips mammograms and colonoscopies because she doesn’t think she’d have the money to pay for any follow-up care if the doctors did detect something. Atkins was mad because her costs felt overwhelmingly expensive.
Welcome to the Republican High Deductible Insurance Plan. Atkin’s proved the public isn’t ready to maneuver through such a convoluted system, especially the GOP’s replacement plan.

One final Truth: Insurance costs were out of control before ObamaCare. My own HSA plan cost $650 a month, with a deductible of $10,500 back in 2005. And every year my premiums went up $125 a month. Imagine where they would be today. Here’s another story that back me up:
Mills and her husband run a furniture store. They used to buy their own health insurance in the early 2000s, but the premiums became unaffordable, surpassing $1,200. They had gone without coverage for two years, paying cash for doctor visits, until the Affordable Care Act began.

“It’s made it affordable,” Mills says of Healthcare.gov. This year, she received generous tax credits and paid a $115 monthly premium for a plan that covered herself, her husband, and her 19-year-old son.

Earlier this year, Mills’s husband was diagnosed with non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. He is now on the waiting list for a liver transplant. Obamacare’s promise of health coverage, she says, has become absolutely vital in their lives.

1 comment:

  1. You call this I guess a guy like you would so you found some people that one Obamacare that voted for Trump well congratulations this is not new and I am a better America

    ReplyDelete