Mugged by the Reality of Obamacare

Lori Gottlieb did not know that she was among America’s very, very rich. After all, she’s a psychotherapist.

When she voted for Obama and cheered the arrival of Obamacare she did not know that she was going to be paying for it, to the tune of thousands of dollars a year. And she did not know that this extra money was going to give her less coverage than she had before.

She told her story in the New York Times:

THE Anthem Blue Cross representative who answered my call told me that there was a silver lining in the cancellation of my individual P.P.O. policy and the $5,400 annual increase that I would have to pay for the Affordable Care Act-compliant option: now if I have Stage 4 cancer or need a sex-change operation, I’d be covered regardless of pre-existing conditions. Never mind that the new provider network would eliminate coverage for my and my son’s long-term doctors and hospitals.

The Anthem rep cheerily explained that despite the company’s — I paraphrase — draconian rates and limited network, my benefits, which also include maternity coverage (handy for a 46-year-old), would “be actually much richer.”

It was new to me: under Obamacare insurers are forced to cover sex change operations. As if aromatherapy and maternity coverage for a 46 year old were not enough.

So, Lori Gottlieb was mugged by reality. Welcome to Obama’s America. As the old saying goes: you get what you vote for.

Anyway, Gottlieb decided to express her outrage at the current state of her health care.

Her friends were unsympathetic. They told her that:

… it was beyond uncool to be whining about myself when the less fortunate would finally have insurance.

Not only was Obamacare going to cost her more for less, but now she discovered that her friends did not even respect her viewpoint. Where's free speech when you need it?

Liberals and other assorted leftists are happy to pay higher premiums because they see themselves as martyrs for the cause:

“The nation has been better off,” wrote one friend. “Over 33 million people who did not have insurance are now going to get it.” That’s all fine and good for “the nation,” but what about my $5,400 rate hike (after-tax dollars, I wanted to add, but dared not in this group of previously closeted Mother Teresas)? Another friend wrote, “Yes, I’m paying an extra 200 a month, but I’m okay with doing that so that others who need it can have health care.”

A therapist like Gottlieb surely noticed that this is quasi-delusional. In the first place, Obamacare is an insurance program. It does not provide health care. In the second place most of those who are going to gain coverage are receiving Medicaid. (In Kentucky, over 80% of the enrollees on the Obamacare exchange signed up for Medicaid.)

And everyone knows that Medicaid is substandard insurance, mostly because very few physicians will accept it.

Let’s not mention all of the great hospitals that are refusing to accept people who bought their insurance on the Obamacare exchange.

Of course, the president did not tell the American people how many of them would be losing their coverage or paying more for less coverage in the interest of putting more people on Medicaid. In fact, he lied about it.

Good liberals like Gottlieb’s friends do not care. They are in it for the duration.

Gottlieb has seen the light. It’s not about the 1% being taxed more. It’s about everyone else getting screwed:

Along with the smug insureds, President Obama doesn’t care much about the relatively small percentage of us with canceled coverage and no viable replacement. He keeps apologizing while maintaining that it’s for the good of the country, a vast improvement “over all.”

And the “over all” might agree. But the self-employed middle class is being sacrificed at the altar of politically correct rhetoric, with nobody helping to ensure our health, fiscal or otherwise, because it’s trendy to cheer for the underdog. Embracing the noble cause is all very well — as long as yours isn’t the “fortunate” family that loses its access to comprehensive, affordable health care while the rest of the nation gets it.

Sacrificed on the altar of politically correct rhetoric—who would have imagined such a thing?

One wonders what will happen when the “smug insureds” discover that their plans are going to be changed too, that they too will be paying more and getting less… if, that is, they still have jobs.

Keep in mind that the self-insured are just the opening volley. In time the rest of the nation will find out the bitter truth about their insurance.

And all for the glorious chance that Bradley can be surgically transformed into Chelsea Manning. Warms your heart, doesn’t it?