How Republican Obamacare Lies Nearly Killed A Man

[babylonsister]

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/29/republican-obamacare-lies-killed-man.html

How Republican Obamacare Lies Nearly Killed A Man
By: Jason Easley
Tuesday, April, 29th, 2014, 8:00 pm


The Republican lies and misinformation about Obamacare have consequences that go beyond politics. In some cases, not believing the GOP can be the difference between life and death.

The details via Philly.com:

Dean Angstadt fells trees for a living.

He’s a self-employed, self-sufficient logger who has cleared his own path for most of his 57 years, never expecting help from anyone. And even though he’d been uninsured since 2009, he especially wanted nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act.

“I don’t read what the Democrats have to say about it because I think they’re full of it,” he told his friend Bob Leinhauser, who suggested he sign up.

That refrain changed this year when a faulty aortic valve almost felled Angstadt. Suddenly, he was facing a choice: Buy a health plan, through a law he despised, that would pay the lion’s share of the cost of the life-saving surgery – or die. He chose the former.

“A lot of people I talk to are so misinformed about the ACA,” Angstadt said. “I was, before Bob went through all this for me. I would recommend it to anybody and, in fact, have encouraged friends, including the one guy who hauls my logs.”

….

“For me, this isn’t about politics,” he added. “I’m trying to help other people who are like me, stubborn and bullheaded, who refused to even look. From my own experience, the ACA is everything it’s supposed to be and, in fact, better than it’s made out to be.”

Angstadt would probably be dead if he didn’t have a friend who cared about him enough to fight and educate him about the ACA. Dean Angstadt got lucky. He had a friend who was willing to fight to get him to sign up, and he signed up during the open enrollment period.

His story is a reminder that the Republican lies about the ACA have real life and death consequences. Some of the people who believe the Republican misinformation campaign, and don’t get health insurance, will get sick and die before the next open enrollment period begins. It is twisted, but some opponents of the law view every person who doesn’t sign up and gets sick as proof that Obamacare doesn’t work.

The results of scaring people away from signing up for the ACA include crippling debt, people not going to see a doctor when they are sick, or even death.

more...

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/04/29/republican-obamacare-lies-killed-man.html


http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117549/affordable-care-act-convert-would-have-died-without-obamacare
Obamacare Skeptic: ACA Misinformation Nearly Killed Me

[Gothmog]

1. Watching Fox News can kill you

One of the reasons why this man did not get insurance was the fact that he was getting (or not getting) his information on the ACA from Fox News http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/30/1295910/-Yup-Watching-Fox-News-can-kill-you-Literally

The original story was heavy on the feel-good stuff (the ACA saved his life!) and thin on his motivations. So the Washington Post's Erik Wemple followed up, and yes, it was really all about Fox News.

He says that he “leans” Republican and essentially listened to what the GOP had to say about Obamacare, and not so much to what the Democrats had to say. As for his media diet, Anstadt says he goes online for some of his news, but when it comes to television, “Fox News, of course, and that’s basically what I watch on TV,” in addition to local news, he says. “I like some of those radicals” on Fox News, he says. “I like O’Reilly.”

Asked if Fox News had molded his view of Obamacare, Angstadt responded, “Yeah, yeah — they get people fired up. You know what, I really do have a different outlook on it. It’s really wrong that people are making it into a political thing. To me, it is a life-and-death thing.”

And this is why Republicans are so dead-set against helping even their own people:

Of Obamacare’s namesake, Angstadt says, “I didn’t care for Obama. I can’t say nothing bad about him now because it was his plan that probably saved my life.

Watching Fox News will not only make you less well informed but it can kill you.