The Claire vs. Josh media war has us all confused. So here are some facts about Obama Care in Missouri that you may want to keep in mind when you go to the polls November 6th.
First: In 2010, 72% of Missouri voters, and our state house and senate, rejected any individual being forced on to Obama Care when we passed Proposition C (The Healthcare Freedom Act). The law, however, does not prevent anyone from signing up for Obama Care if they chose to. Yet our Senator, Claire McCaskill, was the 60th Yes vote in the U.S. Senate when they passed Obama Care. The ACA was forced on every person in our state because of her vote. Our vote to the contrary mattered not at all.
Before Obama Care passed, McCaskill hosted a town hall in Jefferson City to explain the Affordable Care Act. I attended and it was packed. The overwhelming majority were there begging her to vote no. Her phone lines burned up with constituents who where opposed to it.
Yet she ignored her constituents and voted with her party instead.
So what, you might say. That was then and this is now. How is Obama Care hurting the folks in our state today?
Well, In a nutshell, we lost the freedom to choose what healthcare plan we want and insurance companies lost the freedom to sell it to us.
The only health insurance coverage now allowed is strictly controlled by the Federal Government. Since the ACA, about a dozen companies in Missouri have either ceased offering any individual plans or simply gone out of business.
Why? Obama Care does not work as a business. All insurance is based on underwriting – so the risk a company is taking on is known, and premiums can be set accordingly.
The ACA does not ALLOW underwriting and this is critical to the current argument over pre-existing conditions. If no insurance company is allowed to consider an uninsured person’s health (through underwriting), which is actual insurance, at an affordable price to a healthier applicant is impossible.
Welfare is not a dirty word, but let’s be honest: it is not insurance. If we wish to provide coverage for the uninsured with preexisting conditions, we can. In fact, Missouri had a high-risk pool for many years before Obama Care was enacted. It provided exactly that kind of coverage and worked quite well. We can have “protection for people with pre-existing conditions” and still allow a free market for everyone else…we have DONE it before! Amazingly, premiums for our high-risk pool were actually lower than today’s Obama Care rates for most people. Only if you are getting a hefty subsidy each month is your net Obama Care cost affordable.
The ads accusing Josh Hawley of filing a law suit attacking pre-existing condition coverage is technically correct. But the lawsuit actually seeks to overturn ALL of Obama Care. As we have seen, Missouri can “protect people with pre existing conditions” without Obama Care.
Claire McCaskill supported the federal government in raining down Obama Care on all of her constituents—you are REQUIRED to be a part of it. Nothing else is allowed. She also approved of the individual mandate – the penalty for not buying Obama Care. A lovely feature that takes up to 2.5 % of your family’s income, due at tax time. What a deal! You can’t afford the only health plan available and you get punished for not buying it! Thankfully, that penalty ends in 2019—no thanks to Claire.
But we still only have one or two companies in each county, that change almost every year. They offer wildly more expensive policies, with benefits DICTATED by the Feds, with large deductibles and narrow networks. When you go to the polls in November, hold Claire accountable for what she has done to her constituents in MO – by foisting Obama Care on us when so few wanted anything to do with it in the first place!
Hold her accountable for her inaction to reverse the horrible harm she inflicted on Missouri. Obama Care has been financial and health plan death by a thousand cuts to the vast majority of your fellow Missourians. What she has done has indeed impacted your life and the lives of those around you.
(See the video on how we can escape the ACA without hurting ANYONE)
https://youtu.be/fUbWcGQ_Z3Y
James Coyne