(SJ Mercury News) Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.
These “independents” were like totally floored. For people in Middle Class Land, that’s real money that could have been used for other things, and really hurts during the Obama economy malaise.
“I was laughing at Boehner — until the mail came today,” Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.“I really don’t like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family’s pocket each year, that’s otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy.”
Granted, both families make more than the cutoff for receiving a “subsidy”. Yet, Covered California states that just 570,000 of the 1.9 million who will get insurance through the Government Exchange will be eligible for subsidies. And someone has to pay for all those extra costs built into O-care plans. People like the ones mentioned in the story.
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