Gee, if you could only plan for those Emergencies
It's been a common refrain on the pages of DKos over the past years that the Republican Party is intentionally, with harmful intent, misleading people about the Affordable Care Act. We understand that people will NOT buy insurance thanks to the lies put into the national discussion. Many of these uninsured would get sick and some would surely die. Well, with a week to go until the end of the Open Enrollment Period there are still some out there who have been scared off of Obamacare beyond their window of luck. Here is a sterling example of someone who, fortunately didn't die, but will probably end up in Medically Induced Bankruptcy courtesy of the Lies O' the GOP, aided and abetted by it's media stenographers.
A Letter To The Kaiser Foundation:
Q. I am 63 years old and uninsured. I have not enrolled in Obamacare, mainly because of the website issues and security concerns. I have been waiting for all of this to shake out.
Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago I went to the emergency department with an aneurysm of my aorta. I had surgery and spent time in the intensive care unit, and as a result, my hospital bill is nearly $200,000. I am retired and don't have much money coming in each month. I have heard that if your hospital bill is the result of an emergency condition, it is possible to get Obamacare retroactively and have these expenses covered under the plan. I would appreciate any insight that you can provide.
The helpful writer at Kaiser News spent three paragraphs explaining how Open Enrollment Periods work and deadline extension but they didn't seem to have the heart to say what each of us Kossacks knew reading that letter: She didn't have insurance when the bills were incurred and therefore no insurance company on this big Earth will pay those bills.
She can thank God, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barrack Motherfuckin' Obama that she can get affordable, quality insurance tomorrow morning despite an existing aortic aneurysm but she is responsible for that $200,000 hospital bill in the eyes of the law. She will have bill collectors hounding her until lawyers take over, then the court will intervene and if she's lucky, they can use a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy to protect her home... maybe. In the eyes of ME, the responsibility sits with the craven GOP politicians and supporters who calculated that sabotaging the laws of the land would reward them with wins and jobs and windfalls of cash. They were right in the shortest term and Aortic Aneurysm will pay for that success for the rest of his or her life.
No doubt, by now, this letter is reflective of hundreds, may be thousands of souls who have allowed their Tea Party inspired fears to steer them into bad decisions but no there can be no doubt about who is responsible for these fears. The loathsome Republican Party takes more victims each day. And that is why we fight.
(UPDATE: I want to thank commenter Second Gen for mentioning that Aortic Aneurysm may have a sliver of hope. Apparently, and I did look it up, you can apply retroactively for Medicaid to pay bills accumulated with 90 days of application. We don't know enough about AA to say if they would qualify but early retirees who "don't have much money coming in" have a good shot at qualifying. My fear is that they are in a state that hasn't expanded medicaid. I also am not sure if this varies from state to state, although the reference I looked up was not state specific. I also wonder if asset issues could cause a problem. Anyway I did contact KaiserHealthNews and asked them to relay that news to the questioner and I hope it helps... that's what we Libruls do, we help first, judge never.
As for some pie fighters in the comments, yes, I did open the door and I am glad Congressional District Triage is being discussed. It's important and I would like to do a dairy on just that if I can find a good story to hang it on.
Make Yourself Feel Better - Kick A Republican Congressman To The Curb Today
Most of us live in safely carved Democratic or Republican districts. Thanks to gerrymandering far more are Red than would constitute a representative government. That is why in 2012 Americans gave 1.5Million more votes for Democrats in Congress and yet Republicans hold a huge majority in the lower house. This is nothing short of treasonous. If you live in an non competitive district you need to find a competitive purple district to adopt and help with.
Help Erin McClelland out with a teensy contribution. The PA-12 is a purple district carved from the bones of Jason Altmire and Mark Critzes' old digs. Anyway those blue dogs are gone and this suburb of Pittsburgh is ready for a genuine progressive voice.
Erin will gladly kick Keith Rothfus' arse to the curb this November in your name
With Gerrymandering screwing over PA and many other states (Dems won the raw
congressional vote in PA by 75,000 and yet Republicans won 13 of 18 districts - seriously, where is the DOJ?) Dems who live in safe districts, safe D as well as safe R, need to pour cash and muscle into those purple districts that are, by and large, winnable. PA-12 is one of them so make yourself feel good and slip her a twenty today at
her ACT Blue site.