Sure, except it says she had fibromylalgia, which was a “pre-existing condition” most places and also means she probably spends a shitload of time at doctors. I mean the medication alone can run a couple hundred a month. Add in all those doctor visits and it just seems off.
It doesn’t make sense for a ton of reasons, but the biggest reason is that if she doesn’t want insurance, and is just forced to buy it, then the cheapest plan is not $893 a month.
So she pays for Health Insurance out of pocket. Her husband’s income is counted along with her lack of income which gives her a high premium and her husband’s small business won’t pony up for health insurance that includes spouses. She decides the penalty is too high not to get the insurance (the penalty is certainly not 900 a month), so she votes for Trump because anything is better than the insurance she has now… and probably doesn’t put an ounce of blame on the small business owner. Now she is concerned about the repeal because the replacement isn’t clear… when almost none of his policies, anything he ever said, typically had a clear path to actually working in the real world.
Apparently she ignored all the signs that led up to the moment that Trump would do exactly what he is doing… and that’s not dumb why? If I was being generous, i would say she lacked the ability to think critically in any shape or form.
All of this:
Trump’s retaliatory and impulsive behavior, which I think I assumed was a campaign tactic, have carried over into his actions as president-elect. He now has the power to reward companies or countries that flatter him and destroy those that don’t with a simple tweet — just look at how he praises L.L. Bean and criticizes Boeing, causing their stock values to swing like yo-yos. His tweets about foreign powers lack restraint, and his treatment of the press whenever they say something he doesn’t like shows his vengefulness. He promised that he would be a president to all Americans, but all he has done is divide us.
Was evident on the campaign trail, but somehow she and a lot like her thought they were smarter than everyone else because they “got” the game Trump was playing… and the rest of us didn’t.
Except it wasn’t a game was it?
Yeah I am not sorry. Anyone that voted for Trump and is now pissed that they might lose their healthcare coverage, cry me a fucking river you idiot.
Yes it really does not make sense. I am saying that the article is fake. I am saying that I find it very difficult to believe that wherever this couple lives in the Midwest the ONLY insurance option available to HER costs $900 a month. Remember, she said her husband has insurance through work, so she’s just looking for coverage for a single person, 55 years old, and the ACA means she’s not disclosing her serious pre-existing condition, so they’re not socking her for that. I think someone who made up this article literally went out on the exchanges, plugged in some figures and picked the highest priced plan they could find to use as the example.
I get that people take issue with the “if you don’t opt in, you pay a penalty” part of the ACA. Perhaps, if this woman is real, that is what turns her off about “Obamacare”. Her pre-existing condition factors into that though, as under the system the Republicans want to bring back she’d be excluded from having any coverage at all through anyone. Out of pocket at full price for you until Medicare kicks in another decade from now! At least under Obamacare she has the option to be covered, assuming she can find a plan that doesn’t cost $900 a month. If that’s really the only plan available to her wherever she lives, then it’s a moot point as thanks to her pre-existing condition she is going to be screwed no matter whom she voted for.
Incorrect. You are way off. In Wisconsin, the most expensive platinum plan for someone over 30, (500 deductible 1k out of pocket max) with 0 subsidy is…
490 dollars a month.
I don’t know where she gets 900 from. I can’t find a plan that crazy.
Are you sure? Did you remember to search for “Bionic Parts Replacement” under plan options? ;-)
I’m pretty sure someone at VOX totally fabricated all the numbers in that article, and possibly the woman herself. “Sherry Underwood”…maybe she’s Carrie’s mom?
I believe her. I mean, I don’t think she’s right about the cost of her healthcare or her reasons for voting for Trump, but I believe she’s real and actually thinks these things.
I can easily believe voters think all sorts of wrongheaded and stupid things, because I’ve seen them in interviews and articles gleefully offering their dumb opinions about any number of topics.
I think it’s far more likely that this woman is real and looked for the cheapest 2-person plan on the exchange (because the website tells you to enter your spouse’s info, even if they aren’t getting coverage, but then shows you price estimates for 2-person plans), then complained about the cost and went right on opting out. I mean the line about not being able to afford medications makes it clear that she isn’t really paying for that plan (she clearly doesn’t just do without fibromyalgia medication). Does Vox have a history of fake stories, or are you just suggesting that this is a real person lying about her motivations? It really doesn’t matter whether she accurately assessed the value of Obamacare or not - she thinks Obamacare’s cost is very, very high and that was a reason to vote for Trump. Neither part of that equation matches reality (the cost is lower than it would otherwise be, and Trump is more likely to increase the cost of health insurance than Hillary was), so who cares about picking nits on her understanding of the health insurance market? Even if the real story is “I was told that Hillary was a vital threat to national security and then days after I voted to stop her, I was told that was all some bullshit Trump made up to dupe us into voting for him,” it’s still a story worth engaging with.
So self-serving lies aside, the question is not about whether this person made a good, rational decision to vote Trump (she clearly made a terrible decision for all sorts of reasons), but how we want to treat people who voted Trump and now wish they had paid as little attention to Hillary’s emails as the press is currently paying to them. My stance is that we should treat people like that positively and encourage them to make up for it by trying to explain to other who haven’t realized their mistake (which she claims to be doing).
She says in the article that you have to put in your spouse’s information, which is true - the website does tell you to do that. If you search in Ohio (43001 for example) for plans with a married couple in their 50s, the cheapest one you get is… $892.15 / month.
I live in Ohio. I just ran through the exchange real quick with a married couple, both 55, $75K family income, and I used middle of farm country southeastern Ohio so as to receive the fewest options possible for coverage.
I still got offered 33 plans total, with the cheapest Bronze plan coming in at $506 per month, but a Silver plan with a much lower deductible ($3500) and really low copays ($30 office, $15 generic drug, $65 specialist) was only $576 per month. Considering the couple could most likely drop whatever coverage the husband has through the small business he worked for (and thereby apply the premiums he was paying to the $576), I don’t think that’s too bad. I think the VOX article took the scariest numbers it could find and used them.
Hmm, well maybe 43001 is a higher-priced area. She said “a small town” not necessarily the middle of rural country. I mean, I would have referred to my home town as small, but it was in Westchester County, NY.
Oh, I can totally believe that she thinks these things. Hell, she could totally be paying that much.
But I’m 99% certain that she doesn’t NEED to be paying that much.
Here’s a recent experience I had this past year. Interestingly enough, it involved my sister who also has Fibromyalgia.
She was recently laid off, and has since started her own job as a freelance designer. And she’s quite successful, and making good money. But she had no health insurance. Since she has a pre-existing condition, I told her, "Hey, you need to get insurance NOW, because once the ACA is repealed, you are gonna have a really hard time getting insurance. You may have a hard time anyway, but it’ll be BETTER if you are at least able to already have insurance.
So she went onto the NY Exchange… and had a nightmare of a time. Basically, here’s why: instead of doing what I would have done, which is just use the website directly and pick a plan, she did what I suspect lots of folks do, and used the help of the “navigators”. Navigators are basically unpaid volunteers who help you pick a plan. Also… they don’t really have any clue.
She worked with these folks for literally weeks to try and get signed up. They kept asking her for financial info and crap about earnings. Now, this is understandable. You need that to know if you qualify for subsidies and crap. But I know that my sister doesn’t, because she makes a damn good chunk of change. But it’s extra complex, since she no longer has a constant employment salary, and it’s definitely different from last year’s earnings… but whatever. It’s really not fair for me to lay the blame on the navigators, because a big part of the issue I’m sure came from my sister not really knowing what the hell was going on.
Anyway, they fucked it up, and almost signed her up for a terrible plan (first one which was crazy expensive and offered no benefits, and then another one which was good, but was a medicaid plan, because they incorrectly listed her annual income as negative $4k a year), but then I just took over and fixed it in a few minutes.
But she easily could have had a bad experience, and gotten a crappy plan… but this isn’t the same thing as the ACA being flawed. There were better options to be had.
You’re right that we need to not ostracize them forever. But at the same time, I think that it’s still important that they were willing to accept what were promises to oppress various minority groups, in order to improve some aspect of their own lives.
To me, things like having a police state that rounds up millions of people, or banning people for their religion, is so abhorrent that I couldn’t vote for someone who suggested those things, even if they offered me some really nice incentives. Like, if they said, “I’m gonna cut YOUR taxes, while doing these other things!” I’d still say no, because even if I wanted those nice things, the evil shit is still fucking evil, and voting for it makes ME evil.
I agree that’s an important point here - it’s not enough to say, “Well, it turns out Donald Trump is a shyster who fooled us all with his applause lines about draining the swamp and locking up his opponent. We should have voted for someone else!” The problem is that you were OK with active racism far beyond the casual use of “shyster”.
I put in a 55 Female Smoker with 100k income and shopped for plans in my area (obviously there is no subsidy here)
The most expensive plan on the list is $1,117.60, with a max out of pocket of $6,850 and $1,000 deductible. Generics drugs at $10, Brand $30, primary care is $10, specialists are $40… estimating 20k a year, roughly. This plan was suggested for someone who sees physicians often.
I believe just walking into the door at my physician office is between 200-300, so if you actually see them 20 times a year, that’s a lot by the way but some people do do that. Some drugs can easily exceed 1k a month depending on what you’re on, she doesn’t say what she treats her condition with though. 20% coinsurance is a norm for a higher level plan too.
And of course this is the one with the highest monthly premium, and her husband has insurance through work so this is one person.
The band is playing.
Edit: Toby Keith now
Edit: Now Trump
I don’t even recognize many of those performers, and the ones I do recognize make me chuckle. Lee Greenwood? Really?
RaviDrums!
RAVIDRUMS! RAVIDRUMS! RAVIDRUMS!
Oh man just seen this so hilarious
Fake news everywhere