Over at The Washington Post, Erik Wemple takes on the curious case of Dianne Barrette, who is this minute's poster child for the evils of Obamacare:
" More coverage may provide a deeper understanding of the ins and outs of Barrette’s situation: Her current health insurance plan, she says, doesn’t cover “extended hospital stays; it’s not designed for that,” says Barrette. Well, does it cover any hospitalization? “Outpatient only,” responds Barrette. Nor does it cover ambulance service and some prenatal care. On the other hand, says Barrette, it does cover “most of my generic drugs that I need” and there’s a $50 co-pay for doctors’ appointments. “It’s all I could afford right now,” says Barrette. In sum, it’s a pray-that-you-don’t-really-get-sick “plan.”"
Steve Benen follows up like so:
" If this woman had a serious ailment and was forced to stay in the hospital for a while, her old plan would have likely destroyed her financial life permanently, leaving her bankrupt. Now, thanks to “Obamacare,” in the event of a disaster, she’ll be protected with coverage her insurer can’t take away -– with no annual or lifetime caps. In other words, the new horror story for critics of the health care law features a middle-aged woman trading a bad plan for a good plan, and health care insecurity for health care security. What’s more, while much of the coverage of Barrette’s situation has focused on the higher monthly cost of her new, better insurance plan, there’s another detail that’s been overlooked by some: she’ll be eligible for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The cost of the coverage isn’t what she’ll actually have to pay out of her own pocket."
Yeah, you see, that's sort of the whole point of the Affordable Care Act -- it creates health insurance exchanges where people who find themselves in this situation can get relief from situations like this, obtaining health insurance at competitive prices that offer more bang for the buck and remove the worry of people falling into crippling indebtedness because of that one time they really, really didn't want to die.
Nevertheless, if you are someone who's received notice that you are losing your insurance coverage, that's a traumatic thing to experience, even if your insurance coverage is objectively terrible.