Helena Haddad – 10/7/15

This page was last updated on October 8, 2015.

Obamacare does work; Helena Haddad; Beaver County Times; October 7, 2015.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Obamacare has had a great impact on my health care costs. If not for the law, I would have paid high out-of-pocket expenses.”

[RWC] As I’ve noted over the years, I pay for all my medical expenses (insurance premiums, copays, etc.) out of my own pocket. Please read my paper “Healthcare.”

“Due to my disability which forced me into retirement at age 60, I paid outrageous rates until I applied for Obama health care and now only pay one-third the cost. My doctor visits are now $5 and medicine is also $5.”

[RWC] Even the worst government programs usually appear to help someone. Otherwise, program promoters wouldn’t have people like Ms. Haddad to write letters or shove in front of a TV camera. “There ain’t no free lunch,” yet Ms. Haddad doesn’t seem at all curious about who pays the other two-thirds of her medical expenses. Hint: It’s not benevolent Martians.

“Congressman Rothfus, stop trying to repeal the health care law and educate the public that Obamacare does work.”

[RWC] During his 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said, “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. … And we won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as president of the United States.” Remember, a premium decrease of only $1 per year would fulfill Mr. Obama’s promise of “up to $2,500.”

Since Obamacare began affecting my premium in 2013, my premium has increased by 67.3%. Had I not chosen to settle for a higher deductible and a higher out-of-pocket maximum in exchange for a “lower” premium, my current premium would be 99.4% higher than my pre-Obamacare premium. To get anywhere near my pre-Obamacare premium, my out-of-pocket maximum would be nearly equal to the annual premium, my deductible would be over twice what it is, and my share of co-insurance would be double.

In fairness, with or without Obamacare, medical insurance premiums increase as we age and I have no way to determine how much of my premium increase was due to Obamacare and how much would have happened without Obamacare. That said, since Obamacare began affecting my premium in 2013, my premium increase over two years during the Obamacare age was 1.6 times the increase over the 10 years before Obamacare. Had I not settled for lesser coverage as noted above, my premium increase over two years would have been 2.4 times the increase over the previous 10 years.

Granted a single person is not “a typical family,” but a premium increase of 99.4% is a long way from a premium decrease of “up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.”