OBAMACARE and YOU

My fundamental issue with honesty is simple: a man's word is his bond (women too.)

In our house, if you say you're going to do something-you do it. If you say you're going to be somewhere- you be there, when you're going to be there. In practice, it has set my kids markedly apart from their peers to the extent that people comment about them on it (not saying yours aren't of similar integrity.)

So when the Commander-in-Chief says in June 2009 in front of the American Medical Association (emphatically, with hands waving and pointing): "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away." And from inside the White House, in a prepared speech (I forget what those organized events are called), in June 2012 as he was running for re-election: "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable," those were lies. Proof follows.

I admit I didn't know at the time what the heck an individual mandate is, or an employer mandate is. I do now. And millions of Americans do too. Individual means you buy your insurance without employer assistance. Employer mandate means you get your insurance through your employer, which is the vast majority of Americans.

The Obama administration likes to insist that it was not lying when it said "you can keep your insurance" because "what they meant was, you keep it if there were no changes to your plan." Uneducated Americans think this means something like, cancer treatment was covered before and then it got dropped or something large like that.

No. In truth, what it means is if any of the following change, in any way, your plan is no longer eligible for "grandfathering" under Obamacare:

1. Eliminate or reduce benefits 
2. Raise a co-pay
3. Raise a deductible
4. Raise employee contribution 
5. Add/increase annual limits
(source: National Review.)

If any one of the above occur, your plan is no longer allowed under Obamacare. This is why millions are losing their insurance right now.

Too many of us are not our brother's keeper. We think we will not be impacted because we sit safely in employer-directed health insurance. NO PEOPLE, YOUR TURN COMES in 2014/2015.

Every year company sponsored health care changes. Your co-pays for doctors or medications go up or down by a few dollars. THAT'S A CHANGE. Your deductibles go up or down a few hundred dollars. THAT'S A CHANGE. Your share of premium costs go up or down $40 or so. THAT'S A CHANGE. 

All those normal, understandable changes void your plan under Obamacare. That's why people are getting dropped left and right. It's not because their plans are "substandard," that's another lie. It's because the plan changed in a small way, and they are now void under Obamacare.

Our family is already seeing it as DH interviews for work. Smaller to medium sized business "have to" cover him on insurance. They do not have to cover spouses and children. And many are not. 

So what can you do? Ultimately, the power is truly in the hands of the people. Obamacare was a partisan bill. In my opinion, you need to do your homework the next election, and vote into office people who reflect the values of self-sufficiency (meaning- you don't expect someone else is going to cover your freight), integrity, independent thought vs a party line. Someone who follows the Constitution at least to the extent that they understand the big big line that is supposed to exist between the States and the (dare I say illegal) overreach of the federal government in all aspects of our lives. Examine their voting records (John McCain), their stated positions. Every once in a while does a person living a double standard sneak in? Sure (Harry Reid!) But by and large, people are creatures of habit. They generally produce a big bread crumb trail leading to who they really are.

Hillary was right. It does take a village. But we are the ones who determine what kind of village.