Anatomy of an Obamacare ‘horror story’

[n2doc]

Texas daily went digging for victims of the ACA and Surprise! Reporter unearthed three Tea Partiers who hate the new law.

By Maggie Mahar

For months, health reform’s opponents have been feasting on tales of Obamacare’s innocent victims – Americans who lost their insurance because it doesn’t comply with the ACA’s regulations, and now have to shell out more than they can afford – or go without coverage.

Trouble is, many of those stories just aren’t true.

Yesterday I posted about a Fort Worth Star Telegram article that leads with the tale of Whitney Johnson, a 26-year-old new mother who suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS). Her insurer just cancelled her policy, and according to Johnson, new insurance would cost her over $1,000 a month.

That claim stopped me in my tracks. Under the ACA, no 26-year-old could be charged $1,000 monthly – even if she has MS.

Obamacare prohibits insurers from charging more because a customer suffers from a pre-existing condition. This rule applies to all new policies, whether they are sold inside or outside the exchanges.

At that point, I knew that something was wrong.

When I checked the exchange – plugging in Johnson’s county and her age – I soon found a Blue Choice Gold PPO plan priced at $332 monthly (just $7 more than she had been paying for the plan that was cancelled). Co-pays to see a primary care doctor would run just $10 ($50 to visit a specialist) and she would not have to pay down the $1,500 deductible before the insurance kicked in.

My radar went up. Recently, I have been reading more and more reports regarding “fake Obamacare victims.”

more

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

[FatBuddy]

1. $332 per month eh?

that's a fucking car payment.

we pay more than enough in taxes to pay for a system similar to canada or britain. that is, if our tax dollars weren't being used to pay for middle eastern boondoggles and reverse corporate socialism.

obamacare is just double dipping - they think the American public is just an ATM.

brother malcolm said it best: "Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!"

[spanone]

2. what? teabaggers would lie about Obamacare? i'm shocked!!!!

thanks for your radar!!!!!

[truebluegreen]

3. I read this and another post by the author.

They demonstrate that not only are TeaBaggers determined to be victims, but the state of news reporting (no time, no resources, no fact-checking) is so bad that catapulting the propaganda is dead easy.

[jsr]

4. Recommend

[Doctor_J]

5. Republicans lie about every subject, every day.

They lie about ACA, they lie about USPS, they lie about spending and budgets, they lie about welfare and jobs, they lie about taxes, and every other issue. This should not be surprising, since the truth is never on their side - never.

rec