Who are the people willing to identify themselves as casualties of the Affordable Care Act?

[Quixote1818]

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2014, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)

and did they really 'shop' in the exchanges?


Turns out in the article mentioned below, they are all tea baggers who NEVER did 'shop' in the exchanges.

Snip> In a video talking about her experience, Johnson claims that when she started “trying to shop around, the rates went from $1,000 to $1,800 a month for not even close to the coverage that my previous insurance had offered me.”

Johnson also told the reporter that her husband’s employer covered him as well as her son, but that if she tried to join his plan, his $325 premium would triple.


Only problem is, her claims are a lie. Who was she?

Snip> With a little more Googling, I found her Facebook page, which revealed that she is a member of the Parker County Tea Party Facebook Group and that she has attended its meetings. (Her mother, Dawn King, was one of two founding members when the Parker County Tea Party was formed in 2009.)


This is a great read about how reporters don't do their homework and check on peoples claims:

http://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2014/01/02/obamacares-victims/

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[Lifelong Dem]

2. The sorry ones who had their junk insurance canceled

and had to get their ass off the sofa and sign up for better insurance.

[11 Bravo]

3. A long read, but I urge my fellow DUers to take the time. K&R (and thanks for posting this!)

[Quixote1818]

4. Here is Johnson's psycho Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/whitney.king.98

[KansDem]

17. "Currently unavailable"

Not only are they liars, they're cowards too!

[WinstonSmith4740]

28. Oh, no! My eyes!

I followed your link and went to her page after reading the article. Getting rid of that image of a gun next to a Bible is going to take more than one martini.

[gulliver]

5. Amazing how easy it is for Tea Party folks to mislead the media.

Eventually news organizations that are vulnerable to cheap cons like this are going to disappear. Can't happen soon enough.

[1000words]

6. The law is passed, the deal is done. There is no threat.

Time would be better spent working to make ACA better than debunking morons.

[Quixote1818]

9. People are more likely to sign on if the false claims are debunked

That story spread across the country and perhaps millions read it and believe it. It's extremely important to let people who read it know that it's 100% false so they are more likely to go check out the pricing for themselves.

At DU our control is message based, not making the law work better. We have no control over improving how the website and law work. If we have control I don't know about, please fill us all in.

[1000words]

11. If ACA is what it's presented to be, have confidence in your belief in it.

Furthermore, give your fellow citizens some credit. The Teabag morons are a very small minority.

[Quixote1818]

21. I think the ACA will do fine, just trying to help it along a fraction. nt

[1000words]

22. Like many, I was hoping for much more but I know what it's like to not have coverage.

It literally just about killed me, as a result.

Indeed, ACA will do just fine. Despite the noise from the nutters.

[WinstonSmith4740]

31. Agreed.

Yes, Teabaggers are morons and a small minority. However, they are supported by the deepest pockets on the planet, who will NEVER stop trying to overturn this. They can finance any campaign with pocket change. That entire bus tour the first year out was sponsored by the Koch Brothers. The fact that the ACA is settled law means nothing to them. Lying means nothing to them...this is the source of "death panels" and the creepy commercials with "Uncle Sam" in the doctor's office. Look at what they've done to the settled law regarding choice, and are still trying to do to Social Security and Medicare after almost 80 and 50 years respectively.

We here can believe in the ACA completely, and have complete confidence in it, but it will always be something the average American is going to have to fight to keep.

And unfortunately, after Reagan and both Bushes, I have a little trouble trusting my fellow citizens to make decisions that will benefit them. I heard a speech by Gore Vidal years ago in which he stated that the genius of the right wing was that they not only were getting Americans to vote against their own best interests, but they were getting them to think against their own best interests. And we have seen that come to fruition.

[1000words]

32. Fair enough

My concern is folks are spending too much time "playing wack-a-mole," their valuable time and energy will be taken away from the promise of working hard to make sure ACA evolves to single-payer or something much more ambitious.

I'm well aware of the coordinated attacks from well-funded resistance groups, but distraction is all that is needed to take one's eyes off the prize.

[TrollBuster9090]

24. I agree with you 100%. Debunking false propaganda is NOT a waste of time and energy.

It's one of the most important, and effective things that regular people like us can do. Like Clement said, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth even gets its boots on. And if you don't debunk these false propaganda myths, conflations, obfuscations and false equivalencies they just become zombie lies that never go away, and leave a permanent effect on the American political system. (Like the zombie lies about cutting taxes creating jobs, and government spending leading to negative economic growth, or capital punishment deterring crime etc.)

Bravo to you for posting this. Thank you!

[Quixote1818]

27. Thanks!

Thank goodness Salon caught Sean Hannity the first time this occurred: http://www.salon.com/2013/10/18/inside_the_fox_news_lie_machine_i_fact_checked_sean_hannity_on_obamacare/

But this latest article goes to show we have to keep playing whack a mole every day.

[TrollBuster9090]

29. Whack-a-mole is definitely the best way to describe it.

But when Hannity aired his falsehoods, and then Salon debunked them it probably only took 10% of the steam out of the lie. That's the sad part, and it's true for ALL of these false stories. Debunking them is like trying to UN-RING a bell. It can't really be done.

SOME of the media outlets are doing their jobs and fact-checking these things. Most are not. We do the best we can by spreading the truth over the internet, as you've done here, and then people who read it will perpetuate it etc. And that's about the best we can do. But even that is a bandage solution, and it's not nearly as effective as the original lie.

We (and the Democratic Party) have to come up with some BETTER way to do this. We have to somehow get AHEAD of the ball, rather than playing a reactive game.

I'm convinced that the success of the conservative movement is based mainly on identity politics and politics of resentment. The result of this strategy was to create a permanent audience for this kind of propaganda, who will sit there just waiting to be fed this kind of propaganda, and then run with it. The Democratic party doesn't have anywhere near that kid of cohesion, or anywhere near that kind of robotic obedience to the 'party line.' That's obviously a good thing, but we definitely have to find a couple of issues that centrists, liberals and progressives can rally around, and keep hitting on those, as the conservatives have done. Running around stamping out propaganda fires is a necessity at the moment, but it's not a very efficient one.

[William769]

7. Kick & recommended.

[Quixote1818]

8. Here is her follow up article where she confronts the "Newspaper" that ran the false claims

http://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2014/01/03/anatomy-of-an-obamacare-horror-story/

[gulliver]

20. The plot thickens. The Star Telegram is caught with its pants down.

It really does make you wonder if this was not some sort of self-stoking propaganda ploy similar to what Cheney pulled with Judith Miller at the New York Times. The Star Telegram is whistling past the graveyard on this one I think.

Somehow we get editors asking for an article about Obamacare losers. Somehow it gets assigned to a young, busy reporter. Somehow it ends up getting Tea Partiers as its main news sources. Somehow the result ends up being used by powerful Republicans like John Boehner to attack Obamacare.

[TrollBuster9090]

25. And somehow the worst that will happen is somebody will get "Loganed."

ie-put on 'administrative leave' (aka put on paid vacation).

And Dick Cheney earned the 'brass balls' award a couple of weeks ago by going on Fox and claiming Obama's "If you like your plan you can keep it" line was the 'biggest lie in political history.' Sorry, Dick, but the biggest lie in political history was YOU leaking a story to The Times, and then going on Face The Nation and QUOTING the story you leaked to confirm the bullshit you were peddling about having NO DOUBT that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction.

[mainer]

10. Unfortunately, there are "victims" in my own family

I have a son who refuses to enroll in Obamacare because his insurance broker told him his family's premiums would go way up, all because evil Obamacare forced the cancellation of their old policy. I can't argue with him, because he says "all the websites" say it's costing people outrageous amounts of money. Then he said that his insurance broker told him "Obamacare won't be around in six years anyway because it's a failure and it'll be voted out." That's when I realized he's dealing with a tea party insurance guy.

There's nothing I'm able to do. My son is without insurance, by choice.

Meanwhile my other lefty son is happily enrolled and paying a pittance for insurance.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. Why not just challenge your son

to go to the website, or call the 800 number. If he wants to prove his claims, this is a great way for him to prove that you are wrong and he is right.

And most people love a challenge.

[rgbecker]

18. Have faith, My daughter was hesitent also, but finally bit the bullet.

I told her she would have to pay a penalty if she didn't sign up and would have no insurance, so why not sign up and at least get the coverage for the money.

I suppose his broker has some plan in mind for your son?

Jesus, this country is screwed.

[KansDem]

19. "Insurance broker"

That's all I need to know.

For years, I sat on the Benefits Committee of my employer. One of our duties was to review the next year's health insurance proposals and select a plan for our fellow employees.

We had a third-party representative who provided us with the proposals. There were usually three from area insurance companies: one from a major, known insurance company and two from lesser-known companies (some I hadn't even heard of). We always went with the major, known company because the others were crappy plans, at least what we could understand from the proposals.

I don't know for certain but it seemed we were being steered toward the major, known company. Every time. It seemed like the whole undertaking was a ruse designed to make it look like we had a "choice" but I really don't think we did.

I believe we were paying him as a "consultant" and I often wondered how much of a kickback he was getting from the major, known insurance company.

[Zorra]

12. Well, I had a really horrible time with the system, but the work was worth it

in the end.

I am beyond deliriously thrilled with my insurance policy, I can afford it, and the bennies are like a dream come true. What a relief to no longer have to worry that my entire life could be trashed beyond repair if I got seriously ill or had a bad accident.

[emmadoggy]

13. Who knows if she is

lying about her husband's premium tripling if she joins the plan - BUT, I don't find it a surprise that her premiums through Obamacare are high. My understanding is that if you are able to get insurance through an employer, you don't qualify for the subsidies.

I am in the same situation. I would be really curious to see what sort of subsidized rates and insurance we could get compared to my husband's employer provided insurance - which is terrible. But we can't get the subsidies simply because his employer offers insurance. In my opinion, if the employer's insurance is crap, expensive or whatever, you should still be able to shop on the exchange and get subsidized rates based on your income.

[TrollBuster9090]

26. That would be an obvious tweak (amendment) to the law, which I suspect the GOP would never allow.

Mainly because they don't WANT any unintended negative consequences of the law to be fixed.

But the obvious thing to do would be pass an amendment asking companies to calculate the total amount of money they spend on health insurance, divide it by the number of employees, and then give the employees a choice between taking the company plan, or taking the money and buying their own plan. I suspect there are a lot of company plans that were arrived at based more on kickbacks to executives than benefits to employees.

[SheilaT]

14. I don't know how much the ACA matters in these cases,

but I do know that the premium for a family plan, meaning more than two people, in many work-place health care plans, is a great deal higher than for only one or two.

Among the reasons I'm very happy with my current employer provided coverage is that it costs me about $25/paycheck for their buy-up plan, which covers much more, has lower co-pays and so on. I'm single, which is nice. It would be at least triple that if I were a family.

[SoapBox]

15. Wow...such liars.

Being TeaPukers, you would think that they would be all Holy and Christian like...and they then plot and scheme and LIE all for political games.

Not Holy.

Not Christian.

Un-American.

[Wolf Frankula]

23. I explained How I Fell Into the Gap

On Jan 2. my company began offering a medical plan. I am now covered.

Wolf

[tsuki]

30. People say, some say, I've heard from many small businesses etc. nt