Sunday, December 28, 2014

She had to face down a true believer at a social event

“At this point, one of the spouses, whom I’ll call Tiny Tim, announced that Obamacare would correct all this. Everyone, he said, will get better insurance and better medical care, all for a lower price, and there will be no more uninsured. (Hmm…. Where have I heard that before?) I rained on his parade by saying that many of the uninsured were not lining up to buy insurance. Instead, those enrolled under Obamacare were often previously covered people who had been forced onto Obamacare when they lost their own insurance. (See my discussion about that issue here.) Moreover, those who did not qualify for subsidies were seeing substantial increases in their premiums and deductibles, caused in part by increasing medical costs.

At this point, I offered not a statistic but an example: I know a woman from one of my conservative groups. She’s single, self-employed, in her high 50s or low 60s, and was forced onto Obamacare at the end of 2013. When I saw her at a luncheon about three months ago, she was livid. She’d liked her old insurance, which was affordable and provided the coverage the wanted. Her new policy after she lost her old one doubled her premium and her deductible, and saw her paying for a lot of things she didn’t need or want (such as fertility treatments).

Somehow this anecdote enraged Tiny Tim. He drew himself up to his full height of 5’2″ (I am not exaggerating), tried to lean over the table to get into my face (something you can’t do when your short), shook his stubby little finger at me and, with spittle flying from his mouth, announced that I was a liar. “There is no such woman. You’re lying! Lying!” Let’s just say he failed to intimidate me.”

Obama true believers can’t face it.

My run in with an Obamacare Fanatic. “Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.”

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