By Stewart Lewis–
A deadline approaches – not a school deadline, but the deadline to comply with the Affordable Care Act. I will not meet this deadline, because I don’t want to comply.
I recently reached the magic year that boots me from my family’s health insurance coverage; the law mandates I must enroll through either the federal or Kentucky’s healthcare exchanges. If I don’t, I face a $95 penalty – or as the architects of ObamaCare call it, a “shared responsibility fee” – on my federal income taxes next year.
Lawmakers’ and bureaucrats’ fear that people like me will not join because I’m a “young invincible” is well founded. Being part of a demographic whose participation is crucial to this law working, I don’t see a benefit to my participating.
Another reason I am not going to comply is that I know people who have been in a similar healthcare system. And they hate it.
One friend, whom I won’t name because of active service in the US Army, had a cavity. The bureaucracy associated with his plan took 18 months before his cavity could be addressed. Every service member is required to buy his or her plan through the federal government exchange. Sound familiar? The Department of Defense makes certain requirements limiting or mandating a doctor or dentist appointment.
My friend’s situation reminds me of a scene from the 1995 movie “Canadian Bacon.” An American wakes up in a Canadian hospital. The nurses, or “Candy Stripers,” inform her “their universal health care system has determined that you don’t actually need a doctor until…2006.”
A study by Carnegie Mellon University found that 86 percent of Americans between 25-64 don’t have a grasp on the Affordable Care Act and have no fundamental concept of health insurance to begin with. Maybe the American public should have gotten to read the bill before it was passed.
I expect the number of people who don’t have a grasp on the Affordable Care Act to increase drastically with the Obama administration changing their “firm” deadline again last week, another example of this administration moving the goal post, and redefining the “success” of this law.
Since the launch of Kynect, Kentucky’s state exchange 321,932 Kentuckians have enrolled. This sounds like an impressive number; however only 64,455 have purchased private insurance through the exchange, leaving 257,477 Kentuckians who qualified for Medicaid. Under ObamaCare, the number of Kentuckians who were forced off of health plans they liked is 280,000.
There’s an old saying that a poor plan will yield poor results. So far, this is clearly the case in Kentucky. And to think the national media was touting Kynect’s success when it was launched. If this is an example of success, I will be staying as far away from it as I can, because I am invincible.
Photo courtesy of downeyobesityreport.com
