Despite Glitches, Houstonians Are Flocking to the Obamacare Exchanges
Even as the United States government shut down over a deadlock in Congress regarding the continued funding of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the insurance exchanges created by the law that allow private citizens to shop for plans that will cover them despite pre-existing conditions opened for business Monday morning. The online servers and even some phone operators themselves occasionally locked up under the flood of people seeking coverage, but many people in Houston were still able to secure new plans -- some of them for the first time in years.
"Who benefits from Obamacare?" asked Martha Vasquez-Delgado on Facebook. "Me, I have a pre existence condition called Multiple Sclerosis, my medications are $4000 a month. Yes, a fucking month .And we just switched insurance. Thank you, President Obama. And forget you opposers."
One person who has been avidly waiting for this day for years is Alexis Kidd, the wife of legendary Houston punk rocker Christian Kidd of The Hates. Christian is retired from his day job working for the City of Houston, and receives a small healthcare package as part of his pension. Alexis, sadly, was never able to be added because of her history with mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the protective lining of many of the body's internal organs.
Though Alexis's cancer has been in remission for years, they've been waiting in fear of its return while the years between the passage of the ACA and the day that she could no longer be denied affordable coverage to treat her disease passed slowly. Aid came from private sources, such as Wish Upon a Wedding, which provides financial help to couples seeking to marry but whose funds are tied up with treatments, and Dream Rooms Furniture, which donated $1,500 to the Kidds after a successful Facebook like campaign.
More at http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/10/houstonians_obamacare.php .
