Pirate's Cove

I’m waiting for the opinion piece “Obamacare killed my family when my employer dropped my hours to part time and dropped our coverage”

Obamacare saved my family from financial ruin

House Speaker John Boehner and his tea party friends shut down the U.S. government because of people like me. I am the mother of an insurance hog, someone who could have blown through his lifetime limit of health coverage by the time he was 14. My son has managed to survive despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, and he wears his preexisting condition like a Super Bowl ring.

Good thing this isn’t political. In the first paragraph. Because Boehner and other Americans apparently want to bankrupt her and her family. Anyhow, her son was sadly born with a brain tumor, and Ms. Urbaniak Reid discusses this before moving on to

Mason spent most of eighth grade in the hospital. In the six months he was hospitalized, he spent 65 days in the pediatric intensive care unit. He underwent four brain surgeries. Halfway through his hospitalization, the Affordable Care Act was passed, alleviating lifetime limits on coverage and saving us from the financial abyss. Mason moved to a rehabilitation hospital where he was retaught the most basic skills — sitting up, eating and standing. We faithfully paid the premiums on the employer-sponsored plan through which our family is covered, along with the rest of our bills, thanking God and whoever else would listen for our good fortune to have coverage.

Interestingly, I think we can all empathize or sympathize with their plight. Nor are Conservatives and folks on the right against removing those lifetime limits. I’m not. Nor am I against deeming that people cannot be dropped for getting sick. However, these notions are simply honey poured on top of nasty medicine. Or, better, putting a nice pretzel bun, tomatoes, and catsup on top of a sh*t patty.

The biggest fear for families such as mine is that we will lose our health insurance and be rendered uninsurable because one of us has been sick. The Affordable Care Act does away with dreaded clauses barring preexisting conditions. It also enables us to keep Mason on our insurance until he is 26; then, he will be able to purchase his own coverage on an insurance exchange. At least, that was the plan until last Tuesday, when the government was shut down in protest of such excesses.

Hmm, it seems that the reason people can’t sign up is because Team Obama really truly sucks at rolling out this abomination, not the shutdown.

I don’t want it to seem like I’m making light of the plight of the family, yet, if you put yourself out in the political realm, expect blowback. Lots of families are worried about losing their coverage through their companies as well as their own private plans thanks to Obamacare. They’re worried about losing their doctors, seeing a reduced availability of doctors and medical centers, along with rationing, all of which come with the Exchange plans. Their worried about losing their jobs or seeing their hours cut. Their worried about the economic malaise, caused in part because of the “Affordable” Care Act. Their worried about paying lots of money for the insurance they are required by law to purchase. Even though Obama gave waivers to friendly groups and postponed the employer mandate till after the 2014 midterms.

All the things Ms. Urbaniak Reid likes could have been implemented without destroying our health insurance and care industry, along with the economy. Folks like her want to make it personal. Well, thanks to her belief in the full package of the ACA, her son is doing well, but she is one of the people responsible for making sure people are making less, working less, losing their good insurance, and being long term unemployed.