“This law is doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s working. It’s helping people from coast to coast.” - President Obama, April 1, 2014
That is what the president said after the close of ObamaCare’s open enrollment period on March 31. He touted that 7.1 million people had signed up for ObamaCare through the exchanges, and considered that a victory.
The president did not address many unanswered questions about the composition of hitting his administration's "victory" sign-ups target, nor did he mention the millions of people who had been negatively affected by ObamaCare. Many of them lost their coverage altogether and they can't get it back, or they now can't afford it.
The president also did not mention the results of a RAND Corporation study that found that the number of previously uninsured people who signed up was a mere 2 percent of the nearly 49 million uninsured, instead of the nearly 15 percent represented by the administration's reported 7.1 million sign-ups.
So we decided to do our own non-scientific sampling from listeners of The Herman Cain Radio Show about the impact of ObamaCare on their health insurance. These calls were not selectively taken, but rather, the first calls taken in about an hour during the show. People were eager to tell their stories, which are not being told by the administration or the mainstream media.
Here's what callers said about the impact of ObamaCare on their health insurance, and they specifically mentioned ObamaCare as the cause either directly, through their employer, or through the health care exchanges if they were able to finish the lengthy process:
Robert said health insurance now costs up to $6,000 a year. Part of increase was caused by adding his son, whose work hours were reduced to less than 30 hours per week.
Matt said his health insurance costs went up 20 percent. The total increase was 34 percent but his employer picked up 14 percent.
Lisa said her monthly costs went up from $150 per month to $324 per month, and her deductible went up by $2,000.
Jamie said her monthly cost went down a little, but her deductible went up a lot, to $4,000.
Jane, who just retired, said she cannot afford the cost of ObamaCare, and her deductible has gone up to more than $5,000.
Mark, who has zero income, only qualified for catastrophic coverage and can’t afford it. He’s going to have to pay the fine, since he can’t find a job in the Obama economy.
Michael says ObamaCare will cost him 21 percent of every paycheck, and his deductible has gone up from $1,750 to $5,000.
William discovered that under ObamaCare, Medicare no longer pays for many things it used to pay for, like doctor’s office visits. He found that out when he went to his doctor. Nice surprise.
Sheila said that before ObamaCare, part-time employees at her company were getting health insurance. No more. Now her costs have gone up $80 a month to a total of $326 per month (and that’s with the tax credits), and she has to work two jobs to try to pay for it all.
Just like an illness, these are the symptoms of the disease, which the administration is ignoring and telling the public that the law is doing what it is supposed to do. Really! These are real people, and we have been getting these kinds of calls on a daily basis ever since the roll-out of ObamaCare on October 1, 2013.
Of course, Senator Harry Reid would say these people are lying, and later deny that he said so, and then not be exposed by the MSM.
ObamaCare is a disaster for the working class, and there is nothing affordable about it for most people. Health insurance costs are higher, coverage of services is less, people's choices are restricted and their quality of care is less. Meanwhile, the administration is in denial of the real impact.
If this is truly what ObamaCare is supposed to do, then it is doing a fine job of destroying the best health care and coverage system in the world. The system needed some improvements, but we did not need ObamaCare – which didn’t improve anything and doubled down on the worst elements of the existing system – forced on us based on lies and denial.
We blew up the building to fix a leaky roof. No wonder so many people report getting caught in the rain.
