Despite a rocky rollout, Obamacare seems to be rapidly gaining momentum. (At this point, I'm going to follow journalist E.J. Dionne's advice and refer to it by its formal name, the Affordable Care Act [ACA]). Unfortunately, many of its opponents are willing to lie about the ACA in ways that have a profound influence on the public.
Among the most notable Obama/ACA-haters is Cathy McMorris Rogers, a Republican congresswoman from Washington State. Not exactly a household name, Ms. Rogers was chosen by mainline Repubs to provide the officially sanctioned rebuttal to the president's recent State of the Union message. She spoke of a letter she received from a constituent she referred to as "Bette from Spokane".
According to The Good Congresslady, "Ms. Spokane" lamented the cancellation of her existing health insurance, blaming the ACA and stating that she'd have to pay $700 per month more for a replacement policy. However, the ACA, via its state-coordinated exchange, actually had comparable options available at cheaper rates. But "Ms. Bette from Spokane" (a.k.a. Bette Grenier) readily admitted that, "I wouldn't go on that Obama website at all." Ms. Rogers conveniently omitted that last statement from her rebuttal.
This next example really boggles my mind! A Michigan woman undergoing cancer treatment seems all too willing to deny fellow cancer-sufferers --- who happen to be less financially fortunate --- the same access. Her name is Julie Boonstra, an ironbound Republican married to a party functionary in the Metro Detroit area. She has insisted that the ACA would deny her the treatment she requires. Well, a conscientious Detroit journalist discovered that the ACA would indeed provide the needed treatment. When the reporter furnished Ms. Boonstra the documentation to back up his assertion, she stated that she didn't believe it! Just like that!
I wish Ms. Boonstra a full recovery, but I don't understand how she and others who share her views could be so callous and stone-hearted toward people with modest resources:
--- especially fellow cancer-sufferers!
However, despite significant misfires during the ACA rollout, legions and legions of folks are clamoring to sign up for it. What they're discovering is proving to be a godsend.
More on this in a few days. (Part 2)
All the ballyhoo of PSA televised rah-rah zis boom bah doesn't cloak the story the NUMBERS tell: Before the ACA, roughly 47 million in the USA were uninsured. Now we have insured six million, "only" 41 mere million more to go. The young people who are supposedly healthier are not signing up in droves, according to one expert this a.m. on Chicago's Channel 9. They are doing the math: with their more modest salaries relative to the oldster bunch, they are willing to pay the penalties
ReplyDelete(approximately 1%) rather than the onerous premiums required by the insurance
companies.
...But I share your outrage at the politically motivated Obama haters you cite here. Women like these make me ashamed to be a female at times! Sorry, USA, you MUST do the hard, time-consuming work of delving more deeply into the actual issues/facts, stop reacting in favor of your "tribe" (whether that be race, ethnicity, locality or political party). Clearly these two women relish sticking their heads in the sands of DeNyAll, the infamous desert of long stretches of no logic.
Delete