Mary Lou Retton: Why Is She Uninsured?

Obamacare Harmed Many

Without knowing any of the facts, the Fake News Media has presumed to tell us why Mary Lou Retton, age 55, does not have health insurance: IT IS REPUBLICANS' FAULT!!!

I will not pretend to know why the star of the 1984 Olympics has no health insurance as she is fighting for her life in a Texas hospital’s ICU. But, when I learned that she was self-employed and had recently moved, I could not help but wonder if Obamacare, laughingly named “The Affordable Care Act,” prevented her from buying health insurance and/or from transferring her coverage to her new location. Or, maybe the monthly premium was way above her budget after the ACA destroyed the health insurance market for the self-employed.

I was practicing law when Obamacare was passed and retired in January 2020. I saw, via the experiences of my clients & friends, what this law did to ordinary Americans, at all income levels. It certainly was NOT what Obama and the Deep State promised us. Indeed, they scammed and conned the American people. Below are just a few of the nightmares my clients and friends experienced.

DESTROYING THE INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET

A self-employed, man with an ongoing health problem, had been happy with his high-deductible, low-premium health insurance policy FOR YEARS.  Then Obamacare OUTLAWED individual insurance policies, intentionally & instantly making five million Americans uninsured.

He had two months from the time he was notified, to the time his policy would be cancelled.  Scrambling to find a plan that had not been outlawed, he contacted an insurance agent.  Between them, they researched dozens of plans to find that, in the Portland, Oregon area where he lived, there was ONE he could afford, for $800 per month, twice what he had been paying for the plan that Obamacare outlawed.

THROWING AMERICANS OFF THEIR INSURANCE, AGAIN & AGAIN

In 2013, a self-employed, healthy Physician’s Assistant residing in Texas received notice that the ACA had OUTLAWED the Individual plan she had had for years.  That plan had cost $468 per month with a $3500 deductible.  To replace it outside the ACA-created “marketplace” would then cost $1600 per month, so she purchased the ACA-approved plan with a $12,000 deductible.

Her new plan was cancelled a year later when the insurance company couldn’t find enough people to buy this LEGAL plan.  With few choices left, she was forced to settle for a THIRD plan which cost $750 per month and prevented her from seeing her long-time doctors.

THAT plan was cancelled the next year.  She then signed up for a FOURTH plan at $550 per month with NO CHOICE OF DOCTORS.  Two years later, in February, she received notice that her plan had been retroactively cancelled on 1/1/2017, leaving her with no insurance for the entire month of January. She was lucky that she had had no medical problems that month.

This self-employed American then bought a plan at $800 per month with a $10,000 deductible and no prescription coverage.  This was her FIFTH plan in 6 years!!!!!!!!

In summary, in order to reduce health care choices for Americans and force them into government plans (one step short of Socialized medicine where bureaucrats decide who receives medical care and who doesn’t), this self-employed American’s coverage went from $468 per month with a $3500 deductible to $800 per month with a &10,000 deductible.

OBAMACARE: CONNING LOW-INCOME PEOPLE

A low-income, working couple residing in Nevada dropped their employer’s group health insurance when the Obamacare bureaucrat called them.  He told them ACA would be cheaper for them due to the taxpayer subsidy.  Under Obamacare, their out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits and tests were higher than they had been with private insurance.

BUT, the real shock came when they filed their income tax returns the following April.  The IRS kept their $3000+ tax refund to reimburse the DC Swamp for the subsidy.  Thus, the REAL cost of their health care had doubled! The government bureaucrat lied to them. It was not a subsidy, it was a loan that they were forced to repay when they filed their tax returns the following year.

OBAMACARE: SECOND TO LAST STEP BEFORE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

The ACA was the second to the last step toward destroying America’s health insurance market in preparation for Socialized Medicine controlled by bureaucrats.  And the vote was precisely on party lines. 

For decades, Democrats, Marxists, RINOs, Socialists & other totalitarians have been scheming for government take-over of the entire health care system.  They want to make doctors, hospitals, et al agents of the Federal government, NOT patients’ advocates.  If unaccountable bureaucrats decide who lives, who dies, totalitarians would have almost total control over the American spirit.

Democrats knew the ACA would cause millions to become uninsured.  THIS WAS THEIR PLAN.  Democrats knew millions would be paying higher premiums, higher deductibles and higher co-pays.  THIS WAS THEIR PLAN.

Democrats were hoping the ACA would decrease access to medical care, causing such chaos that Americans would BEG the Federal government to take over America’s health care system, ONE-SIXTH OF THE ECONOMY.

In 2023 America, Mary Lou, once called America’s darling, is without health insurance, but nine million & counting foreign invaders Biden has invited in have 100% health care PAID BY YOU, the American taxpayer, the minute they cross what used to be called our southern border. Where is the “social justice” in that?