We’re two months into the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While short of their original goal, supporters are highlighting the 100,000 people who now have affordable health care coverage.
Opponents, on the other hand, have zeroed in on consumers whose plans have been canceled. Consumers like the Joy Family from California, whose old plans will not be offered under the ACA, forcing them to pay more money for new plans.
Are these stories really representative of the overall impact of healthcare reform on our country? Are they telling the whole story?
Most of the plans that will not be offered in the coming years under the ACA are being discontinued because they do not provide quality healthcare.
A recent post from The Nation highlighted one such case where a Florida woman was paying monthly premiums to essentially be uninsured.
Consumer Reports’s Nancy Metcalf and The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn performed a similar exercise regarding another ostensible poster-child of the evils of health reform: Florida realtor Dianne Barrette. Barrette was featured on CBS and FOX News. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida cancelled Barrette’s $54-a-month plan, offering to replace it with something with that costs ten times as much.
That sounded bad, unless one took into account that her original policy covered virtually no services. “She’s paying $650 a year to be uninsured,” researcher Karen Pollitz told Consumer Reports. “She would have lost the house she’s sitting in if something serious had happened.
I don’t know if she knows that.” Barrette can actually obtain decent insurance on Florida’s exchange at a monthly premium of about $165. When The New Republic’s Cohn went through reasonable options with her, Barrette responded, “I would jump at it. With my age, things can happen.
I don’t want to have bills that could make me bankrupt. I don’t want to lose my house.”
President Obama recently recanted, allowing consumers to renew their old plans for one more year, should they choose. However, Washington is one of 14 states that have chosen to not let consumers renew old plans in 2014.
Based on the achievement of the Washington state healthcare exchange, (we lag behind only New York and California in enrollment numbers) allowing consumers to keep shoddy healthcare plans undermines the premise and the success of the ACA – that everyone, young, old, sick, healthy, are all part of a shared pool.
Today, NPR featured the stories of three California families who won’t be able find their old, expensive, deficient plans under Obamacare. And for that, they are thankful!
As Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times explained in his column, it’s important to look beyond the sensationalizing of a few and think of the overall benefit to all. Quality, affordable, accessible healthcare will change our lives for the better.