There is one group of health care users who are being buffeted hard, and totally unfairly, by this whole ACA rollout mess.
I am talking about the men and women who are currently in their states' assigned risk pools - most of whom are struggling with illnesses like metastatic cancer, multiple sclerosis, and end-stage heart disease.
Most of these people really do not need pregnancy coverage, or preventive screenings - they've already gotten their bad news - but they are paying for it in so many ways.
Let's look at one friend of mine, S. She is young - in her 30s, her husband runs a small family business, they have two kids.
And two years ago, the cancer had already spread by the time they found it.
So for the last two years, S. has been in the state's assigned risk pool; her family has a separate insurance package that meets their needs.
A couple of weeks ago, she got The Letter. The assigned risk pool coverage will no longer be available, and she has to go onto the exchanges to get insurance. Except, she can't get through the website. She may have finally gotten registered, but nothing is getting any better.
Now, I know that she lives in a state (not mine) where Medicaid is not expanding (not that she is eligible for it), and where there is no state exchange, and the navigators are being blocked. But none of that is her fault.
And this is bad. And she is very angry. And she blames Obamacare.
Ladies and gentlemen, this woman needs a break. She has enough to worry about, without the Dec 15 sword of Damocles hanging over her head.