Running around uninsured for the first time in my adult life has not been easy. The tax penalty isn’t cheap (2.5% of your taxable income) and there is the constant uneasy fear of an expensive medical problem, a cancer or car accident, the kind that can bankrupt you.
History has shown, though, that there is almost always a personal price to pay for social change through civil disobedience — a price I’m willing to pay to help break the back of ObamaCare, an immoral and illegitimate government program sold with serial-presidential (and media) lies and enacted into law using one-party procedural tricks.
Like a vast majority of Americans, I was happy with our imperfect health care system prior to the passage of ObamaCare. In-between employer insurance opportunities, I had always purchased an affordable catastrophic plan with a high deductible. It was the best of both worlds — allowing me to pay out of pocket most of my care while enjoying the peace of mind that comes with an emergency insurance policy.
ObamaCare made these wonderful catastrophic policies illegal.
Actually, what ObamaCare did was make these catastrophic plans unaffordable.
ObamaCare’s insanely high deductibles really are catastrophic plans; just very expensive ones — in my case, close to three times the cost of my last catastrophic plan.
Paying the tax penalty and my medical costs out of pocket is still cheaper than purchasing ObamaCare. When you are uninsured, an entirely different world opens up for you. Doctors charge less. Pharmacies charge less. Everyone charges less.
Under ObamaCare, I would have to pay close to $400 for a monthly premium, and my $6500 deductible would ensure I pay out of pocket for almost all of the same services I’m paying out-of-pocket for now. Because I would be “insured,” I would also pay more for these services. My uninsured discount would no longer apply. On top of this, ObamaCare premium costs are expected to explode by double digits next year.
Even accounting for the tax penalty, my annual health care costs would more than double under ObamaCare. And I’m someone with more than one monthly prescription who visits the doctor regularly. I take my health seriously and oftentimes am tempted to break weak and purchase ObamaCare for fear of a catastrophic health event.
I won’t, though, because I want to do my part to break the back of ObamaCare. I just can’t live with the idea of doing anything that will benefit Obama’s and the media’s serial lies. And as an American, I surely can’t abide being forced into doing anything. Giving in can get to be a habit, a dangerous habit.
Hopefully, the Supreme Court will do the right thing this month and end these illegal ObamaCare subsidies going to able-bodied adults. The idea that we the taxpayers are making insurance companies rich by paying for any part of someone else’s over-priced health insurance premium is almost too maddening to comprehend.
The greedy takers enjoying these subsidies aren’t eligible for disability, Social Security, or Medicaid. Like my wife and I did to make ends meet when necessary, these people need to work harder, second and third jobs, not steal from those of us who have.
Either way the Court rules, ObamaCare can still collapse under its own weight if enough people refuse to sign up. Even with its mandate, ObamaCare is already millions of people behind projected enrollment figures, which could finally break its back:
[A]s of now, HHS says that just 10.2 million signed up and paid premiums (which only met HHS’s downwardly revised target). That means that the number of enrollees will have to double next year to meet CBO projections of 21 million.
Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides about the legality of federal exchange subsidies later this month, reaching 21 million will be a challenge. Especially because in the first two years, Obamacare may have already signed up the low-hanging fruit — those who had the greatest need for health insurance.
The number of enrollees isn’t of arbitrary importance, either. Insurers require a broad enough pool of enrollees to manage their risk and keep premiums stable. …
But if this doesn’t work, and enrollment substantially lags in 2016, insurers could be spooked enough into stepping away from the exchanges, driving up rates even further and placing the program’s sustainability in doubt.
A new Washington Post poll shows that ObamaCare is currently as unpopular as ever. Only 39% of Americans support the illegitimate program, while a full 54% oppose.
This is not surprising.
ObamaCare has been all pain, no gain (except for the lazy, able-bodied takers enjoying our subsidies). All the promises from Obama, Democrats, and the media were lies. Emergency room visits haven’t decreased. Costs have exploded, not decreased. We did lose the insurance and doctors we liked. We did lose a lot of choices. Religious liberty is constantly under attack.
Worst of all, a terrible precedent has been set. For the first time in America, Americans are required by the federal government to purchase something for “their own good” — and not because we choose to do something like drive a car or live in a city. There is no opting out of ObamaCare, no way to escape it.
Except through risky civil disobedience.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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