The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) has been a godsend for me and millions of other Americans since it passed a decade ago in 2010. What disappointed me, though, was the piss-poor job that President Obama and the Dems did to tout the ACA, to explain to Americans what it offered and why it’s a “big f–ing deal,” as President Biden said. They needed to do a nationwide tour after it passed, like Biden and Harris are doing for the current COVID-19 American Rescue Plan.
Ten years later, many people still don’t realize that the ACA can help them. I see people profiled on TV all the time who complain about losing their job or a lack of insurance, yet they never seem to realize that the ACA is available for them. For example, last night I watched the “America ReFramed” documentary on PBS called “Bring It Home,” which profiled several auto-worker families in Ohio losing their jobs at the GM Lordstown plant, which used to produce the discontinued Chevy Cruze.
As GM decided whether to assign a new vehicle to the plant or to close it outright, these people were in turmoil. GM told them they could either relocate to work at another plant or lose their health insurance. No doubt it was a Cadillac policy, won after many years of the union working with GM to carve out a really good insurance plan for the workers. I could understand not wanting to lose it. But this shows again the problem of linking your health insurance to your employer: When your employment goes away, so does your insurance.
If the GM employees wanted to remain in the community where they had established their lives with family and friends, allow their spouses to keep their jobs (one worker’s spouse was a teacher) and their kids to stay in the same schools, then they could do that, only they wouldn’t have a job or health insurance anymore. If they wanted that GM insurance, then they had to leave the area and go work at another GM plant.
One family had a daughter with cerebral palsy, and they needed the insurance coverage for her care. A couple with two young kids eventually made the tough decision that the father would leave his family in Ohio while he relocated to work at the GM plant nearly 500 miles away in Bowling Green, Kentucky. At the end, the program showed their tearful separation as the father drove off and left his mom, wife and kids behind, crying.
What I don’t understand is why none of these people (apparently) checked out HealthCare.gov to see if they could find insurance through the ACA. The plans offered are comprehensive plans that must cover 10 essential benefits, including mental health care, prescriptions, etc., and they cannot deny coverage for preexisting conditions. The premium costs can be subsidized based on the person’s income. And the ACA always has had a provision that you don’t have to wait for the annual fall enrollment period if you need insurance right away due to a “qualifying life event”—such as getting a divorce, having a baby or losing your insurance coverage through your job. No matter what time of year, if something like that happens, you can sign up for insurance through Obamacare.
Bottom line: If you need health insurance, then Obamacare can help you with that—and you don’t have to turn your life upside-down in the process.
Of course GM did close that plant, and the new company there, Lordstown Motors, is manufacturing electric pickup trucks. GM also is operating a plant there to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. However, the truck company’s future is far from secure: It is under investigation for suspicious financial activity, and its prototype electric truck actually caught fire during the test drive.
Anyone suffering economically due to the COVID-19 pandemic should check out the policies offered through the Affordable Care Act at HealthCare.gov. President Biden just extended the special pandemic-related open enrollment period through August 15, and the recently passed American Rescue Plan offers substantially reduced premiums.
With Obamacare, your insurance goes where you go, not the other way around.
Links:
www.healthcare.gov
www.pbs.org/video/bring-it-home-kav6wp/
www.caranddriver.com/news/a32970526/lordstown-endurance-electric-pickup-revealed/
www.caranddriver.com/features/a35915139/pbs-bring-it-home-lordstown-gm/
www.thedrive.com/tech/39788/lordstown-motors-endurance-prototype-caught-fire-ten-minutes-into-first-test-drive