Most of the 41 workers at Extreme Dodge in Jackson, Michigan say Obamacare is exploding their premiums and destroying health care as they once knew it.
“I feel like I’ve been taken to the cleaners,” salesman Neal Campbell told NBC News senior investigative reporter Lisa Myers in a Sunday report. Campbell, who has a wife and three children, says Obamacare is breeding resentment and anger. “We feel betrayed, lied to, and we’re pissed off.”
“How is this helping the average American that’s working 40 to 50 hours per week?” asked salesperson Terry Hardcastle. “How are we supposed to live?”
Cathy Smith agreed. “You don’t make that much money to begin with,” said Smith with tears in her eyes. “…the prescriptions are going to kill me.”
Under Obamacare, the workers’ employer faced a 50% increase in costs to keep worker plans at the same benefit and deductible levels. To remain economically viable, the dealership decided to give each worker an extra $2,400 and let them find plans on their own. Small business insurance broker Michael Harp says it’s all part of the new Obamacare reality for small businesses and their workers: “The overwhelming majority, they’re paying much higher rates and they have lower benefits.”
Service adviser Steve Williams said Obamacare has destroyed the era of affordable health care.
“The days of low deductibles and all that stuff are gone,” Williams told NBC. “It’s not going to get any better. It’s just going to get worse.”
The NBC News report comes as the Obama administration and its progressive allies are reportedly readying yet another public relations campaign in the hopes of resuscitating Obamacare’s lugubrious approval ratings. The administration’s media blitz will highlight the stories of people who scored taxpayer-funded Obamacare coverage.
The strategy, however, risks further angering the millions of middle-class workers who lost their insurance coverage due to Obamacare or whose premiums and deductibles are soaring in order to pay for the very Obamacare “winners” the administration plans to highlight.
According to the latest CNN poll, Obamacare is at a record low 35% approval rating.