Why I cannot hate the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

[jaycam]

"Well why didn't you just get a new inhaler?" I felt a sinking pit in my stomach. I was at a follow up visit to my doctor after ending up in the ER a few weeks before because bronchitis had made my asthma worse and I couldn't breathe. The first thing my doctor asked me was where my inhaler was when this had happened. After all, that was in my plan. I tried to explain to her that I only had one inhaler and it had been stolen the week before when I was riding the bus. Somehow, despite my explanation she didn't understand that since I was uninsured at the time, I just couldn't afford a new one. It was only after the ER trip that a friend of mine had pity on me and bought the inhaler for me.

I lost my insurance in April 2012 because I had been working at a call center that had outsourced its customer service department overseas. This was my fourth lay off in about six years. The whole time I had been trying to go back to school but in playing musical jobs I had never managed to do so. I decided to make school my focus and work secondary and deal with it.

Because I have asthma, I've never been able to get insurance without going through my work before. COBRA would've cost me over six hundred a month, and while my state had opened a high risk pool, it was still too expensive. My NP was awesome and made sure I got refills of my medication before I lost my insurance and gave me a list of community services for when I did lose it, because she knew I wouldn't be able to come back afterwards.

I did everything I could to make sure I would be taken care of. I signed up for a prescription plan at a local pharmacy, I found local clinic that was free, run on community donations. Still there are things that free clinics couldn't handle. Waiting all week to see a doctor because you got sick on Sunday and the free clinic is only open on Saturday isn't helpful when you're so sick you can't breathe. The doctors are volunteers so there's no guarantee of continuous care. In fact, the push is to get you into a local public health or community clinic, but they often were not taking new adult patients or were an hour drive away.

It was about a month after I lost my insurance when I found a lump on my right side, along the edge of the breast tissue. The free clinic provided me a referral but when I called the places they suggested I was turned away. I was told I was too young, that the office no longer provided services, or that they were out of funds for the year. I continued to fight to find a way to access services, but without a referral from a PCP I was getting nowhere. I finally took the time to bus out to one of the few clinics taking patients. They contacted a local imaging center attached to a public hospital to get me in. This started in June, I was finally in for imaging in October. In November I would get a biopsy and find out it was benign. It took me six months from start to finish to find out what was there.

It would be another year before I would get insurance again. In that time I ended up in the ER enough times the doctors started to recognize me. There really wasn't anything either of us could do. I couldn't manage my health without being able to afford regular doctor's visits and medication and they couldn't make a solution appear out of thin air. My wisdom teeth got infected and had to be removed but had to wait two months for a dentist who would help. I was on antibiotics so long I ended up with a GI infection. Bronchitis, allergic reaction, a set of second degree burns from how bad at cooking I can be. They got to deal with it all, despite the fact that most of these things were preventable.

All if this changed in January of last year. I live in one of the states that approved the Medicaid expansion and set up their own healthcare exchange. I was there on day one to shake hands with the Governor, tell him my story, and sign up. I stood up with him to others to encourage them to use the exchange as well. It is the only day of class I've missed since I started back.

Because of the Affordable Care Act I was able to get needed blood work that I had not been able to afford. Reliable access to medication. The first thing my PCP did, remembering how just a few months earlier I had ended up in the ER because I didn't have an inhaler was make sure to get me a prescription for one so I had a backup. One thing I know is I appreciate the opportunity more than I could ever express.

I know there are naysayers out there who will tell me that those things are not really free and that someone has to pay for them. One day I'll graduate and that person will be me. I seriously hope that I am paying to make sure someone gets the care they need with the money I pay into the system. It's saner than paying for what happens when they can't. The system we have isn't perfect, but it can only get better if we put effort into it.

[Turtles2]

No ones forcing anyone to do anything. The fact that you think so, you are grossly over representing my abilities. Its a message board, and last time I looked we are allowed to express our opinions.

You mean until the moderator bans them

[jaycam, RN]

America's "most vulnerable" have a roof over their head, eat everyday, own cell phones and flat screen televisions. You don't know what real poverty is. Real poverty occurs in other countries.

You have no clue what is like to be poor in the US. Some poor may have some of those things, but not all of them, and you don't even know how they got them.

[Turtles2]

It's not really possible to "disguise" health insurance as a wealth transfer program since by definition health insurance has always been wealth redistribution, that's the whole point of health insurance. .

Wrong. Insurance is supposed to be voluntary. Wealth distribution is FORCING rich people to give some of their property to other people.

[Turtles2]

So I take it you believe we should guarantee that people can see whatever doctor they want and have it fully covered under any insurance plan?

No he was pointing out that Obama LIED when he promised that people can get the doctors they had and loved.

[Turtles2]

If we want to introduce a system where people can opt-out of all healthcare and be legally held to that opt-out, then I'm all for allowing those same people to opt-out of paying into that system. As far as I know, no such opt-out system exists.

Obamacare would self-destruct if the individual mandate were removed. Obamacare depends on forcing people to sign up.

[Turtles2]

Obamacare is not universal healthcare. There's good reason to believe that the amount we spend on healthcare, and it's resulting negative impact on the economy, is far more due to our lack of a universal system, which is far cheaper to administer, than it is to moving to much towards a system that is universal through all stages of a disease process, not just when it becomes it's most expensive. Reducing the strain that healthcare costs put on the economy is actually one of the best things you can do in a bad economy. It's not what I would consider moral, but I'd prefer a system that was at least consistent to our current one. Either we guarantee treatment of a condition, or we don't, but this half-and-half thing is idiotic.

You just called Obamacare idiotic. Bravo.

[Turtles2]

It's also worth noting, whenever anyone invokes the poll numbers of people opposed to the ACA, that a significant proportion of those telling pollsters that they don't like the ACA are people like myself (and others here) who dislike the ACA because it doesn't go far enough. I am a proud, open :) single-payer system supporter. I am disgusted that the ACA ended up, after all the sturm und drang getting it written and passed, being just minor tweaking around the edges of our current system, and leaving the for-profit insurance companies as the core of the system.

There has also been plenty of reporting on the fact that, thanks to the successful disinformation campaign by the anti-reform crowd, when people are asked about "Obamacare," they report in large numbers that they are opposed to it. Polling that asks about the "Affordable Care Act" gets significantly higher positive results, often from the same people who don't realize the two are the same thing.

Another liberal admits she hates Obamacare.

[Turtles2]

Yes, good is your friend, for instance if you google "Obama gave unions an ACA waiver" it returns this: Politifact - Unions don't have to comply with Obamacare, says Crossroads GPS = Pants on Fire lie

You like Politifact, huh? Here's another one for you.......

[h=1]Lie of the Year: 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it'[/h]Lie of the Year: 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it' | PolitiFact

[Turtles2]

So I take it you've never voiced an opinion about anything that has occurred outside of the US?\

Americans generally do not visit other countries' websites to tell them how they should live their lives.

But tons of people (like you) from other countries love to come to American websites to criticize Americans.

[Turtles2]

I remember the 350 dollar bill I paid to get a prescription for penicillin when I got strep throat. I remember the embarrassment of asking for a "handout" at planned parenthood when I got a UTI and needed an abx. I remember watching my tooth slowly rot because I knew I had a cavity but I already owed so much money to my dentist I couldn't afford to go back for more work. The Affordable Care Act was a saving grace for me and my family.

You mean the rich people who are paying your medical bills are a saving grace for you and your family.

[Turtles2]

The ACA is trying to address (not very well, I freely admit. We'd be much better off with a single-payer system, and cutting the for-profit insurance companies out of the equation entirely).

Yet another liberal who is disappointed with Obamacare.

[Turtles2]

Almost every adult American pays some forms of tax. It may not be income, but there are still sales and property taxes.

Sales taxes and property taxes do not fund Obamacare. Nice try though.