Republican Learns Obamacare Won’t Kill Her After All, Refuses to Believe It
By Jonathan Chait
Republicans have poured millions of dollars into a Senate ad in Michigan castigating Democratic Senate candidate Gary Peters, who voted for the Affordable Care Act, for done near killing a woman named Julie Boonstra, who has cancer. Boonstra — who also turned out to be the ex-wife of a Republican county chairman — sadly looks into the camera and explains how she had a wonderful insurance plan to treat her cancer, but Obamacare cancelled it, and now she could die.
It's hard to figure out how regulations preventing insurers from charging higher rates to people with preexisting conditions (like cancer) could cause a cancer patient to have to pay more for her insurance. There are people who have to pay more for their insurance now, but they're healthy and affluent, and their rates are rising precisely to pay for care for sick customers like Boonstra,
And sure enough, the Detroit News investigates the options available to Boonstra, and it turns out she will be paying less under Obamacare, not more:
Boonstra’s old plan cost $1,100 a month in premiums or $13,200 a year, she previously told The Detroit News. It didn’t include money she spent on co-pays, prescription drugs and other out-of-pocket expenses
By contrast, the Blues’ plan premium costs $571 a month or $6,852 for the year. Since out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100, including deductibles, the maximum Boonstra would pay for all of her cancer treatment is $11,952 for the year.
Boonstra was overjoyed to learn that, contrary to the fears stoked by Republican operatives manipulating her tragedy in order to deny medical care to fellow sick people, she will actually be saving money now. Just kidding! She is firmly in denial:
When advised of the details of her Blues’ plan, Boonstra said the idea that it would be cheaper “can’t be true.”
“I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/republican-refuses-to-believe-aca-wont-kill-her.html
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