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Obamacare changes are for the better

Since I have cancer, I have spent hundreds of hours before and after Obamacare researching insurance. First, Obama made all the plans be better (like no lifetime limits, my chemo is very expensive and before Obamacare, I would have hit my lifetime limit in just 10 years! I can list a dozen advantages to make these plans better from this new law, but all the bad plans had to be canceled – make sense?).

Second, unlike the Veterans Administration, this is not a government-run health care? All the same insurance companies (Blue Cross, etc.) and doctors and hospitals are in place. Now, just as in the past, if you choose to move to a new insurance plan because it’s more affordable or just a better plan, you had to always agree to the new insurance company’s in-network and out-of-network hospitals and doctors. The only thing that has changed is that all the plans have to be good plans, and the only thing the government does is subsidizes – helps with the costs, if you make less than $90,000 a year.

The old system was costing me more than $1,000 a month ($13,000 a year!) that was literally putting my family in the poor house. But since I have been receiving Obamacare for almost a year, my deductible went from $500 to $250, and my premium has been cut in half, and my out-of-pocket went from $2,000 to $1,200! If you make less than $90,000 a year, there is assistance on a sliding scale: $30,000 gets a lot of help, $50,000 gets some help, and $80,000 gets very little help.

Fox News has sure done a number on me and all my friends to scare us into believing it was difficult, poor care, expensive and just evil, but again, they were totally wrong. Only the “silver” plans have the government subsidies. You would think since all the sick people (like me) are jumping in first, that the cost would go up! How much lower would the premiums be when everyone gets on board!

Walter Cobler

Bayfield



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