After $700 million in advertising and constant celebrity endorsements, Obamacare has failed to attract its primary audience, uninsured Americans.
“At the end of the day, for all of the rhetoric and promises about what Obamacare would achieve, the health law’s most ardent supporters have stuck to their guns because of one thing: coverage expansion. But new data suggests that Obamacare may fail even to achieve this goal…
McKinsey & Co. [an industry survey] indicates that “only 11% of consumers who bought new coverage under the law were previously uninsured.” McKinsey surveyed 4,563 individuals “thought to be eligible for the health-law marketplaces,” of which 389 had enrolled in exchange-based plans.
Of those that didn’t sign up for Obamacare-based coverage, 52% stated that “affordability” was their biggest complaint with the exchanges’ plan offerings.”
Eileen from New Jersey couldn’t agree more. She will be paying $600 more per month for her healthcare in 2015. Like millions of Americans across the country, the deep blue state resident was notified that her policy was being cancelled. She got lucky, managing to get her plan extended for another year through early renewal. However, her temporary reprieve does not ease the painful pocketbook punch she and her husband will face this coming December.
“Our [current] insurance policy is going to go away completely, and we are going to be forced into this other one that will cost $600 more a month. It’s a $1,500-a-month policy, and right now we are paying $898 a month,” shared Eileen. “I’m barely making it now [financially] with the current policy.”
Eileen sees this extension, which allows her to keep her premiums as low as possible, as a lifeline to buy some time in hopes that there will be a legislative effort to thwart the new law that is hurting so many Americans. “Hopefully, something may happen – some miracle might happen.”
While an additional $600 a month is not easy for any family to absorb, it is even more detrimental for Eileen as her husband is unemployed. She admits paying for any additional healthcare costs, which includes an increased deductible of $2,500, will be impossible if her husband isn’t gainfully employed.
“His unemployment ended December 30, so now we just have my meager part-time, per-diem salary. At some point, it is either going to be food on the table or health insurance,” Eileen stated.
Eileen, who is well beyond her childbearing years, joked how she and her husband will receive birth control and maternity care benefits with their new, but very costly policy. “Why do I need the pill? It’s laughable. If you didn’t laugh about it, you would have to cry.”
Noting how the Affordable Care Act was supposed to help insure 30 million-plus people, which it miserably failed to do, Eileen commented, “I don’t understand why you had to disrupt one-sixth of the economy [for this].”
Adding insult to injury, even staunch Democrats are beginning to publically criticize The Affordable Care Act. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) in a candid admission stated, “A delay of this kind — it’s a fix, but it’s also an acknowledgement that, ‘look, we couldn’t implement this in a way that was positive,’ and that’s disappointing.”
Affordability seems to be an issue for everyone. Dubbing Obamacare as a “horror story,” Eileen vented, “There is no easy fix. It needs to be repealed and something else needs to be done.”
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