I'm a big supporter of Obamacare I think all people should have an affordable way to get health insurance. In the last years I have been hearing from the Republicans all the imaginary bad things with health care that are happening or are going to happen. Most of their horror stories are imaginary and should be ignored.
Now I come to the problem. I personally know a couple who have retired, but are not eligible for Medicare yet. The difficulties they are facing to get insurance is I think an unattended consequence of Obamacare. Their premium is around a $1,000 a month before any subsidy. Their deductible is over $12,000 a year before the insurance pays anything. That basically puts their out of pocket expense at around $25,000 a year if they have any medical problems at all. They are not poor, but they still fit into the middle of the middle class. It seems to me that paying that much money a year for medical insurance shouldn't be happening if Obamacare has had the desired effect of lowering costs.
The other consequence of Obamacare is to union members who have had good insurance and still do, but now the insurance companies have changed the way they do business. The deductible has to be paid in total before the insurance pays anything. If you are a single person or a couple it might be fine, but if you have kids or have on-going medical problems you have to come up with the total deductible before the insurance kicks in. It's much harder for a family to pay for their insurance even with a good union policy.
I'm sure that Obamacare has helped millions of people, but it is also costing many people a lot more to get insurance. It is not the wealthy people who are picking up the tab for the lower income people, it is the middle class, and the middle class is struggling and this is another cost that they shouldn't have to bear.
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