Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama bercakap semasa perhimpunan kempen November 5, 2012 di Madison, Wisconsin. (U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally November 5, 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin. (AFP Photo/Mark Hirsch - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
SitiWanMahani - (Indah Kabar dari Rupa) Pasangan San Francisco yang menganggap diri mereka liberal lama dan penyokong Presiden Barack Obama mengatakan ciri undang-undang penjagaan kesihatan presiden telah meninggalkan mereka bergelut untuk mencari pelan insurans yang baru.
Menurut laporan ProPublica diterbitkan pada hari Rabu, arkitek Lee Hammack mendakwa pengalaman pahit itu bahawa keluarganya telah mengalami akhir-akhir ini adalah “yang paling melampau” cerita-cerita sob dikesan oleh media sejak Akta ‘Affordable Care Act‘ presiden mula mengambil permohonan bulan lepas.
Apa yang dipanggil “ObamaCare” telah dibelenggu dengan masalah sejak sebelum rakyat Amerika mampu untuk membeli polisi pada 1 Oktober, tetapi tajuk-tajuk utama pada minggunya kerana telah dikuasai oleh cerita-cerita orang-orang yang telah ditendang daripada pelan penjagaan kesihatan atau tidak dapat mendaftar sama sekali akibat kero-sakan dengan laman web di mana akan menjadi - dasar pembeli tidak boleh mendaftar.
Hammack memberitahu ProPublica Charles Ornstein bahawa dia dan isterinya Joellen Brothers kedua-duanya dalam kesihatan yang cemerlang dan menganggap diri mereka sebagai “buaian Demokrat” yang telah membantu kempen untuk Obama dalam pilihan raya presiden yang lalu. Apapun, roll-daripada ObamaCare bulan lepas telah mening-galkan mereka terpaksa mencari pelan perlindungan kesihatan yang baru, dan nampaknya tanpa sebarang sebenar atau sebabnya.
Ornstein disiasat tuntutan pasangan itu dan mendapati bahawa rancangan terbaru mereka - dasar bulanan $ 550 melalui Kaiser Permanente - sememangnya sesuai dengan acuan apa undang-undang presiden memerlukan rakyat Amerika untuk membeli. Walau-pun begitu, bagaimanapun, suami dan isteri telah diberitahu oleh Kaiser baru-baru ini bahawa rancangan mereka akan tamat pada akhir tahun ini, dan semua pilihan yang mereka lihat sekarang kos ke atas sebanyak 2 kali untuk perlindungan yang sama atau lebih buruk lagi.
“Reaksi pertama kami adalah jelas ada mendapat menjadi beberapa kesilapan,” kata Hammack membuka surat pembatalan dari Kaiser.” Ini adalah sebelum bursa dibuka. Kami cepat tenang. Kami yakin bahawa ini semua akan diluruskan keluar. Tetapi ianya tidak.”
Ternyata, Hammack dan Brothers tidak sahaja yang menerima surat itu. ProPublica diten-tukan bahawa 160,000 pelan hanya dalam negeri California telah dibatalkan oleh syarikat itu, dan hasilnya dalam banyak kes melibatkan bekas dasar pemegang bergelut untuk mencari pelan yang baru yang berpatutan dan dengan manfaat yang sama.
“Pilihan baru mereka sememangnya lebih mahal” Ornstein belajar, bagaimanapun, dan rancangan akan melibatkan manfaat yang “tidak kelihatan apa-apa yang lebih baik.”
Apabila dihubungi untuk Komen oleh outlet berita siasatan, seorang wakil untuk Kaiser mengakui bahawa ke atas sebanyak 35,000 dasar-dasar lain yang serupa dengan Hammack dan Brothers’ telah dibatalkan, dan dasar-dasar baru yang jatuh di bawah Akta Penjagaan Mampu (Affordable Care Act) mungkin tidak boleh didapati pada harga yang sama.
“Dalam beberapa kes, kita mampu untuk mencari perlindungan untuk mereka yang kurang mahal, tetapi dalam kebanyakan kes, kita tidak kerana, dalam bentuk segi ekonomi tulen, mereka adalah orang-orang yang mendapat manfaat daripada sistem semasa . . . Sekarang bahawa peraturan pasaran yang berubah-ubah, akan ada orang yang berbeza yang mendapat manfaat dan orang yang berlainan yang tidak,” kata jurucakap Chris Kaiser Stenrud.
Sekarang kata Hammack dia mempertimbangkan pilihan yang agak luar biasa untuk tanah yang berpatutan pelan berpendapatan kurang banyak supaya subsidi persekutuan boleh membantu kos yang lebih rendah daripada dasar dia ditinggalkan untuk berfikir.
Walaupun pengalaman, bagaimanapun, Hammack dan isterinya memberitahu ProPublica bahawa mereka tidak bersedia untuk membuang dalam tuala berhubung dengan koman-der-in-chief lagi.
“Kami tidak mengubah pandangan kami kerana keadaan ini, tetapi ia akan mendatangkan mudarat kepada mendengar Obama berkata, hanya pada hari yang lain, bahawa jika rancangan kami telah jatuh ia kerana ia tidak ada apa-apa yang baik, dan kos kami akan naik hanya sedikit,” kata Hammack . “Kami berpuas hati bahawa akhbar adalah pada kes ini, tetapi kecewa bahawa penjaga ACA (Badan Pencegah Rasuah) seolah-olah tidak pernah mendengar.”
Couple who volunteered for Obama lost health insurance
under Obamacare . . .
A San Francisco couple that considers themselves longtime liberals and supporters of President Barack Obama say the president’s hallmark health care legislation has left them struggling to find a new insurance plan.
According to a ProPublica report published on Wednesday, architect Lee Hammack claims the ordeal that his family has endured as of late is “the most extreme” of the sob stories picked up by the media since the president’s Affordable Care Act began taking applications last month.
So-called “Obamacare” has been plagued with problems since before Americans were able to buy into policies on October 1, but headlines in the week since have been dominated by tales of people who’ve been kicked from health care plans or were unable to sign up altogether due to glitches with the website where would-be policy-buyers can sign up.
Hammack told ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein that he and his wife Joellen Brothers are both in outstanding health and consider themselves to be “cradle Democrats” that helped campaign for Obama during the last presidential election. Regardless, the roll-out of Obamacare last month has left them forced to find a new health coverage plan, and apparently without any real rhyme or reason.
Ornstein investigated the couple’s claims and found out that their most recent plan - a $550 monthly policy through Kaiser Permanente - indeed fit the mold of what the president’s law requires Americans to buy. Even so, however, the husband and wife were told by Kaiser recently that their plan would expire at the end of the year, and all the options they’re seeing now cost upwards of double for equal or worse coverage.
“Our first reaction was clearly there’s got to be some mistake,” Hammack said of opening up the cancellation letter from Kaiser. “This was before the exchanges opened up. We quickly calmed down. We were confident that this would all be straightened out. But it wasn’t.”
As it turns out, Hammack and Brothers weren’t the only ones who received such letters. ProPublica determined that 160,000 plans in just the state of California were being cancelled by the company, and the outcome in many instances involves former policy-holders struggling to find a new plan that is affordable and with similar benefits.
“Their new options were indeed more expensive,” Ornstein learned, however, and the plans would involve benefits that “didn’t seem any better.”
When reached for Comment by the investigative news outlet, a representative for Kaiser acknowledged that upwards of 35,000 other policies identical to Hammack and Brothers’ were cancelled, and new policies that fall under the Affordable Care Act may not be available at the same price.
“In a few cases, we are able to find coverage for them that is less expensive, but in most cases, we’re not because, in sort of pure economic terms, they are people who benefited from the current system ... Now that the market rules are changing, there will be different people who benefit and different people who don’t,” said Kaiser spokesman Chris Stenrud.
Now Hammack says he’s considering a rather unorthodox option to land an affordable plan - earning less many so federal subsidies can help lower the cost of the policies he’s being left to ponder.
Despite the experience, however, Hammack and his wife told ProPublica that they aren’t ready to throw in the towel with regards to the commander-in-chief just yet.
“We’re not changing our views because of this situation, but it hurt to hear Obama saying, just the other day, that if our plan has been dropped it’s because it wasn’t any good, and our costs would go up only slightly,” Hammack said. “We’re gratified that the press is on the case, but frustrated that the stewards of the ACA don’t seem to have heard.”
,+yang+dikenali+sebagai+ObamaCare.jpg "U.S. President Barack Obama pauses while delivering remarks on the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, at an Organizing for Action grassroots supporter event in Washington, November 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - POLITICS HEALTH TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY– think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)")
+mendarat+di+dalam+Marine+One.jpg "A U.S. Marine holds his hat as U.S. President Barack Obama (unseen) lands inside Marine One at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, November 5, 2013. Obama will visit with wounded military personnel at the hospital before returning to the White House later this afternoon REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES - POLITICS MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY– think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)")
+dan+akhir+Hamas+rohani+pemimpin+Ahmed+Yassin+(kiri)+di+bandar+West+Bank+Ramallah.jpg "An artist works on a drawing of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (R) and late Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin (L) in the West Bank city of Ramallah November 6, 2013. Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium, his widow Suha said on Wednesday after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband's corpse. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - POLITICS CRIME LAW TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY– think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)")
+berjabat+tangan+dengan+Perdana+Menteri+Israel+Benjamin+Netanyahu+di+Jerusalem.jpg "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem November 6, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Reed (JERUSALEM - POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)")
