Americans who lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare now face sticker shock when buying new plans

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: health insurance, Obamacare, sticker shock

(NaturalNews) The president promised repeatedly for years that his signature legislation would not cause anyone to lose their health insurance. That has now been proven to be a lie.

He also promised that his law would lower health insurance premiums for all Americans as well. However, as millions are now discovering, that was a lie too.

Taking away someone's favored health plan and making them replace it with one that is much more expensive doesn't sound very compassionate to me.

So much for liberal government 'compassion'

As reported by The Associated Press, this scenario is repeating itself all over the country:

Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he'd be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.

But the 64-year-old recently received a letter notifying him the plan was being canceled because it didn't cover certain benefits required under the law.

The Griffins, who are retired and live near Philadelphia along the Delaware border, were paying $770 a month for a plan that had a $2,500 deductible. Under Obamacare, however, their plan didn't include minimum coverage levels and requirements. The government, you see, is now deciding what kind of health coverage you must carry; that's what Obamacare does.

But under the Obamacare exchange in Pennsylvania, the closest plan they could afford was a "Bronze" plan costing more than $1,200 and with deductibles in excess of $25,000.

A little compassion, anyone?

Dean Griffin knows exactly what the law is forcing him and his wife to do: Subsidize other people by being forced to purchase a product they don't want and can't use.

"We're buying insurance that we will never use and can't possibly ever benefit from. We're basically passing on a benefit to other people who are not otherwise able to buy basic insurance," he told AP.

Well, the Griffins are among the millions of other Americans who are being dropped by their health insurance companies because their plans don't meet government-mandated coverage. And getting comparable plans at the same levels of coverage, price and deductibles is proving impossible.

The problem is economics. You cannot buy more coverage for less money.

As for the Griffins, and others like them:

They can buy different policies directly from insurers for 2014 or sign up for plans on state insurance exchanges. While lower-income people could see lower costs because of government subsidies, many in the middle class may get rude awakenings when they access the websites and realize they'll have to pay significantly more.

'I feel like they're forcing me into this'

Because of the higher plan costs - which, by the way, the president said would decline for working families by about $2,500 a year - the Griffins will do what scores of others plan to do next year: Forego health insurance altogether and simply pay the mandated fine (oh yes, that's part of Obamacare too - if you don't buy what the government tells you to buy, you get fined).

That fine will be about $100 - or 1 percent of income.

They will join the vast majority of uninsured Americans who have also said they won't use the Obamacare exchanges.

Ken Davis, who manages a fast food restaurant in Austin, Texas, told the AP that he, too, is suffering sticker shock.

His $100-per-month, employer-provided plan has been canceled too and replaced by a plan that will cost him $600 a month (and that's after a $500 taxpayer-provided subsidy).

"I feel like they're forcing me to do something that I don't want to do or need to do," he said.

Sources:

http://hosted.ap.org

http://www.waltonsun.com

http://www.breitbart.com