Kevin Drum recounts the case of a cancer patient Julie Boonstra who was featured in an anti-Obamacare ad “claiming that her new insurance plan under Obamacare was far more expensive than her old plan and didn’t cover all her medications.” When informed that this was not true and that if she had only bothered to go to the healthcare website and checked she would have found better coverage than what she had that was actually cheaper, she refused to believe it because it went against what she had been repeatedly told by Obamacare opponents, like the Koch brothers funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) that featured her in the ad.
These people are so wedded to this ideology that they refuse to face reality. As Drum says:
I don’t know anything about Julie Boonstra, but it sure seems as if she’s been bamboozled by a bunch of fanatic Obamacare haters who have caused her a ton of pain and misery. Boonstra had some genuine problems with the rollout of the exchanges, just as many people did, but once that finally got straightened out, she ended up with coverage that was both better and less expensive than her previous plan. There’s no reason for her to be so anxious about her continued care.
But she never really learned that. For purely venal political reasons, AFP found itself a woman fighting cancer and proceeded to stoke her fears of her new health coverage in order to get a TV ad made. A TV ad. These are people who, if there’s any justice, should not be sleeping easily at night. They are swine.
I have already written about the despicable attempts to discourage young people from signing up for health insurance and to prevent Medicaid expansion in the states.
Stephen Colbert looked at other phony ads put out by AFP.
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Drum is right. Such people are swine.
But she has continued to refuse to even GO to the website even after she was informed that she could get the cheaper rate. plus, her husband is a GOP chair of the county she’s in and a Scott Walker appointee. She is ‘in on it’ as much as the Kochs I’d bet… This is not an innocent victim. She is a proud member of the party that would deny ACA coverage to others.
I wonder how much the results of the recent special election in Florida (touted by at least some as a referendum on the ACA) in which the Republican won was skewed by these sorts of outright lies.
And then how does one effectively counter them when so many have only Fox News as their information source?
Despite their endless lies, The GOP/Tea Party sabotage of the ACA isn’t working very well.
Republicans are signing up in about the expected numbers. More GOPers have put their adult children up to age 26 on their policies than Democrats.
They were hoping for 7 million sign ups the first year. Now at 4.2 million. And this is without counting Medicaid expansions. Histocially, signing up for these programs is slow.
Just keep telling the truth. A lot of the GOP (not all) opposed Social Security and Medicare. Now these are wildly popular plans with everyone.
The uninsured and underinsured are one medical disaster away from losing everything. At some point, you have to realize we are free creatures and do make choices. And if that is their choice….that is their problem.
You really need to stop insulting swine in this way. They’re highly intelligent creatures that give us tasty bacon. They’re useful to society. Unlike the Koch brothers, who probably wouldn’t even taste good.
Didn’t know that.
Of course she isn’t an innocent victim. She is what Mano called a swine and I call a Kochroach.
PS One of my relatives was in a workplace accident. The bill so far is $250,000, covered by workmen’s comp and insurance. Things like this can happen to anyone.
You and Drum insult swine. Swine are not so cruel as these people. Also, swine provide us with the wonders of bacon, while anything these people provide tastes of shit without the fertilizer value of honest shit.
Hi, Trebuchet! Some day I’ll learn to refresh before commenting.
It’s likely that she was paid for this “testimonial” either in cash for her or contributions to her husband’s political endeavours.
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Mrs Boonstra is not an “innocent victim”. Instead she should be considered an employee of the Koch brothers and also an employee of Mr Boonstra (the head of a proper Republican Household). Of course, there is also the unstated issue of keeping peace in the Boonstra home. Who wants to argue with a hard-headed RWNJ?
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“They are swine.”
That’s an unacceptable insult of the Suriae.
Went looking at my state’s exchange options. It’d be nice if I could find a plan that didn’t require me to spend $200 a month so I can spend $5,000 that I don’t have on healthcare until I cover my deductible and it kicks in.
My apologies to pigs everywhere.
I really must get over my habit of comparing the awful behavior of some people to that of other animals. That is, as has been rightly pointed out, almost always unfair to those animals.
@10 NN
I personally think high deductible plans need to be made illegal because it’s effectively just a way to get you to pya in insurance company and often receive no benefits at all. I’d be find with legally eliminating all deductibles and making all plans more HMO type with just copays. Not perfect, but better.
Nothing worse than plans where you can end up totally unable to see a doctor since you’d have to pay a 100 dollar ‘facility fee’ for seeing one.
I heard that if you go on that website, you invite demons to posses you. There ain’t no insurance covers that…
Nescio #10, Smrnda #12:
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You’re looking at this whole thing the wrong way. The benefit you get from health insurance is protection from catastrophic medical bills regardless of deductible amounts. If you elect a high deductible you get an additional benefit, low premiums.
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An anecdotal example from my own life: for fifteen years I bought medical insurance with a $5,000 deductible for $150 monthly. Zero deductible would have cost me about $600 monthly. I received the benefit of being covered for all medical costs over $5,000 yearly and savings of about $4,500 yearly. A yearly check-up cost me about $500 and drug costs were negligible, less than $200 yearly. One giant benefit was a savings in those 15 years of about $70,000 that I spent on other things that were a lot more fun.
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High deductibles are a worth-while alternative for anyone in basically good health. Low deductibles are generally a waste of your money especially if you’re low-income and would rather spend your money on needful items.
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If you can’t afford a $100 to see a doctor you should probably start saving your money for a cemetery plot now…you’re gonna need it!
Oh boy, condescension! Sure glad I’ve got you around to make me feel worse about working my ass off at a low-wage job while I try my best to pay off my student loans because like millions of others I gambled on a college education resulting in a better-paying career and lost. At this point, I’m not sure if I give a toss about ‘catastrophic medical bills’, because it’s just another stack of numbers on the pile.
I don’t mind AT ALL the idea of paying my fair share to avoid pushing that bad debt onto other people, but as it stands if something that costs me LESS than the deductible happens…well guess what? I don’t have $5,000 to spend on treatment anyway, so it’s more debt for me! I’m getting really sick of hearing about what a great big huge favor is being done for me by making me pay for something I can’t afford that I ultimately can’t use.