Will young people sign up?
I'm fifty eight now, but believe it or not, I was once young. When I was thirty I was married with three young children. I was a self employed building contractor, just establishing my own business, and was the sole source of income for our family. Lacking a rich uncle, all investment in my business was from business proceeds. To say the least, disposable income was rare.
I desperately wanted to have health insurance. I lived in fear that I would be injured or become ill. What if my wife or the kids were hurt or became sick ? Finally one year I purchased a catastrophic health insurance policy. This was in the eighties, and it was $350 a month with a $12,000 deductible. I dropped it after one year. Not because I was young and figured nothing would happen to me or my family, but because it took all my disposable income. We never went out to eat or to the movies. We never bought new clothes. We couldn't even afford to go to the doctor. My wife skipped her PAP smear test (until we found out she could get it for free at Planned Parenthood). We also couldn't afford the "luxury" of our summer camping vacation. I used the credit card to put presents under the tree at Christmas time (and spent the next year paying it off). We had the security of knowing that we would "only" have to come up with $12,000 in an emergency while our standard of living was poverty level. This is the reward I get for being a self sufficient citizen? Why couldn't all self employed people be in an insurance pool so we could get the same kind of rates as other companies?
So, I made the calculated gamble that we wouldn't get sick or injured and dropped health insurance. At least we could afford the fifty dollar office visits at the local clinic. I could afford new clothes for the kids when they started school. We occasionally went out and we got to go to our favorite campground in the Sequoias every year. But we lived with the knowledge that one stroke of bad luck could ruin us. With great fortune, we avoided severe injury and illness.
My story is not unique. Millions of our fellow citizens have made the same calculation. Not all have been as lucky as me.
Now, finally there is a viable option for people like me. The ACA pools all people like me which allows us to get insurance at a reasonable cost. Those barely above the poverty line get subsidies so they are covered. Now hospitals don't get stuck with the cost of those without insurance which really means that everyone with insurance aren't paying those costs which have been passed on by the hospitals.
Will young people sign up? Of course. No one, no matter how young, thinks they can't get sick or injured. The only reason people have gone without insurance is because they didn't want to sacrifice their every last dollar to an insurance company especially when that company could have simply refused to pay, because they determined your illness was "pre-existing" or you had reached your lifetime cap or essentially any reason they could think of, to cut you off.
Young people will sign up. The web site will be fixed. The ACA/Obamacare will succeed. And the American people will remember who it was who tried to stand in the way. We will remember the Republican Party and Fox "News" and all the lies they told. The death panels, socialism and all the rest. The only thing we won't remember is why the ACA is called Obamacare. Most people will think it is because President Obama cared.
I'm fifty eight now, but believe it or not, I was once young. When I was thirty I was married with three young children. I was a self employed building contractor, just establishing my own business, and was the sole source of income for our family. Lacking a rich uncle, all investment in my business was from business proceeds. To say the least, disposable income was rare.
I desperately wanted to have health insurance. I lived in fear that I would be injured or become ill. What if my wife or the kids were hurt or became sick ? Finally one year I purchased a catastrophic health insurance policy. This was in the eighties, and it was $350 a month with a $12,000 deductible. I dropped it after one year. Not because I was young and figured nothing would happen to me or my family, but because it took all my disposable income. We never went out to eat or to the movies. We never bought new clothes. We couldn't even afford to go to the doctor. My wife skipped her PAP smear test (until we found out she could get it for free at Planned Parenthood). We also couldn't afford the "luxury" of our summer camping vacation. I used the credit card to put presents under the tree at Christmas time (and spent the next year paying it off). We had the security of knowing that we would "only" have to come up with $12,000 in an emergency while our standard of living was poverty level. This is the reward I get for being a self sufficient citizen? Why couldn't all self employed people be in an insurance pool so we could get the same kind of rates as other companies?
So, I made the calculated gamble that we wouldn't get sick or injured and dropped health insurance. At least we could afford the fifty dollar office visits at the local clinic. I could afford new clothes for the kids when they started school. We occasionally went out and we got to go to our favorite campground in the Sequoias every year. But we lived with the knowledge that one stroke of bad luck could ruin us. With great fortune, we avoided severe injury and illness.
My story is not unique. Millions of our fellow citizens have made the same calculation. Not all have been as lucky as me.
Now, finally there is a viable option for people like me. The ACA pools all people like me which allows us to get insurance at a reasonable cost. Those barely above the poverty line get subsidies so they are covered. Now hospitals don't get stuck with the cost of those without insurance which really means that everyone with insurance aren't paying those costs which have been passed on by the hospitals.
Will young people sign up? Of course. No one, no matter how young, thinks they can't get sick or injured. The only reason people have gone without insurance is because they didn't want to sacrifice their every last dollar to an insurance company especially when that company could have simply refused to pay, because they determined your illness was "pre-existing" or you had reached your lifetime cap or essentially any reason they could think of, to cut you off.
Young people will sign up. The web site will be fixed. The ACA/Obamacare will succeed. And the American people will remember who it was who tried to stand in the way. We will remember the Republican Party and Fox "News" and all the lies they told. The death panels, socialism and all the rest. The only thing we won't remember is why the ACA is called Obamacare. Most people will think it is because President Obama cared.
