Jack of Harts

Eight years ago, I had this nice little health care plan that worked for me. It was $100 a month and covered the first $1,000 of any medical expenses I had all year long. Then I had to pay until I hit the deductible before they stepped in again. The plan worked for me. I picked it from a dozen or so plans offered by three or four different companies. It wasn’t the cheapest plan, but it was pretty close.

Long story short, Obamacare declared it not good enough and it’s gone now. They offered me a new plan with a higher deductible at three or four times the cost. I didn’t take it. Last year I had two medical emergencies that totaled a good 50k in costs. I didn’t have to pay all of that due to some really amazing charities and the other guy’s insurance company that foot the bill for what he did to me. But that’s a lot of money. I realized that no matter how expensive it was, I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore and I had to have something.

The government wouldn’t let me sign up until a month ago due to some arcane logic, and then I only had the choice of three plans from a single company. Every other company is gone and headed off into the hills. The cheapest Bronze Plan is worthless and is still over $400 a month. I picked the Silver Plan at over $700 a month because it is the first one that might actually help if I go to the hospital again. Though it still isn’t as good as the $100 a month plan I had eight years ago.

I might have said something back then about what would happen if the government got rid of competition and choice and then required everybody buy what they demanded. The rates would go up. This isn’t exactly rocket science. It’s just life under Obamacare. I can’t afford a premium that is nearly one third my total income, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to pay this, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next. And I am simply one of millions of Americans placed in this situation by the government decrees of the last eight years.

I can only hope that the new government will do what they said in the New Year and fix the mess that Obamacare created.