I suspect that more than a few readers have noticed, with likely little surprise, that there hasn't been a lot of national establishment press attention paid to how Obamacare has been working out in the real world since it officially went into effect on January 1.
Non-existent HealthCare.gov security? Who cares? Patients turned away from emergency rooms voluntarily (because they don't want to risk huge uncovered costs they will have to pay out-of-pocket) or from medical providers involuntarily (because they don't know whether a particular patient is or isn't covered)? You might find coverage of that in the British wing of the Washington press corps, and that's about it. Meanwhile, scenarios such as the one you will see play out in the local TV news report out of Pittsburgh after the jump are happening all over the country, and it's not pretty (direct YouTube; HT Personal Liberty Digest):
Small business employees react to life changes necessitated by Affordable Care Act
Outside Simonetta’s Collision and Car Care in McKeesport, it's a frigid 2 degrees.
Inside, Gary Simonetta's employees are getting ready for a meeting he’s been dreading for months.
“What I have here is the benefits sheet from last year. What you were on in 2013," said Charles Moore, co-owner of Triangle Benefits Service and the broker who has handled the company's group health insurance for 19 years. "Here is the new plan we had to switch to that takes into account the Obamacare regulations.”
For the first time, employees were finding out how the Affordable Care Act will affect their medical coverage and how much they'll pay for it.
Last year’s 6 percent premium increase has now exploded to an average 32 percent jump.
"That 32 percent increase includes increasing the deductible, as well to try and get something modestly priced,” Moore explained.
Jeff and Dave used to have a $1,250 deductible. Since Obamacare went into effect, it's now jumped 60 percent to $2,000.
That's nothing compared with Brian, Christy and Judy who have kids. They'll pay twice that at $4,000.
... Co-pays are up too.
... 42-year-old Jeff's in the same boat.
"Wake up, America. This isn't acceptable. It's not acceptable," he said.
Higher premiums and much higher deductibles. Wow.
Read and watch the whole thing, up to and including what's happening to the owner's own premium.
For every supposedly "good news" story about Obamacare the administration trots out — and, predictably, some of them are questionable — there are many times more stories like these which the nation's establishment press is consistently ignoring.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
