Hahahahaha: Bay Area Obamanuts and Big Believers in ObamaCare Are Shocked, Shocked! to Discover Their Health Care Insurance Premiums are Going Waaay Up to Subsidize the Poor

I don't want to reveal things that were said in emails but I think the cobloggers were pretty unanimous in giggling about this.

I cannot stress to you enough how much you must Read The Whole Thing. But I'll do my best to excerpt it. But realize I'm leaving a lot of delicious meat on the bones.

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.

But now their premiums are going way up -- by $1800 per year for an individual policy for Vinson, and by almost $10,000 per year for a family policy for Waschura.

"Welcome to the club," said Robert Laszewksi, a prominent health care consultant...

It's those who were already buying their own insurance on the open market who are being hit the worst -- or at least hit the first. Wait until millions of people are dropped off employer-paid coverage and left to the exchanges.

Which will happen.

In California, 1.9 million people buy plans on the open market, according to officials with Covered California, the state's new health insurance exchange. And many of them are steaming mad.

"There's going to be a number of people surprised" by their bills, said Jonathan Wu, a co-founder of ValuePenguin, a consumer finance website. "The upper-middle class are the people who are essentially being asked to foot the bill, and that's true across the country."

A shill from Covered California pops in to claim that it's always been said that there would be both winners and losers under ObamaCare.

Um, no. Nancy Pelosi guaranteed that everyone's rate would go down. Obama promised a $2500 per year reduction in premiums. He campaigned on it.

While sick people (those who bought insurance when already sick, and thus pay elevated premiums) are paying less, people who bought insurance during periods of healthiness are now being shellacked.

But people with no pre-existing conditions like Vinson, a 60-year-old retired teacher, and Waschura, a 52-year-old self-employed engineer, are making up the difference.

"I was laughing at Boehner -- until the mail came today," Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.

"I really don't like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family's pocket each year, that's otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy."

Well! Look who sounds like a Republican all of a sudden, speaking of "my family's pocket" and "our local economy."

[W]hile both said they anticipated their rates would go up, they didn't realize they would rise so much.

"Of course, I want people to have health care," Vinson said. "I just didn't realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally."

Oh My God. Yes, you thought yourself very virtuous, self-righteously declaring "Everyone should have health insurance!"

But you never expected to have to sacrifice anything except for mouthing that ego-pleasing slogan.

And you always put yourself morally above those who you thought would have to pay for all this -- even though those people were the only ones who would be doing any sacrificing at all, in your mind.

And now you find out that You have to pay for your folly -- and suddenly you're not quite so self-righteous, are you?

More on this habit of Thoughtless Sloganeenering Leftists -- people who want to preen as if they're Doing Something for the poor so long as they're not actually required to Do Anything for the poor -- at Legal Insurrection, from Neo-Neocon.

Schadenboners... will erupt in my pants when media companies -- already unprofitable and losing money -- dump all of their employees onto the exchanges.

Of all the companies in America, media companies are among those least able to suddenly cough up thousands more per employee for health insurance.

posted by Ace at 05:10 PM

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