One month after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared that all of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) horror stories were lies, he claimed that he never said such a thing.

But Citizens Against Government Waste always knew the stories were true, and we asked our members to provide their own ObamaCare horror stories.  Hundreds have responded.  They include individuals, entrepreneurs and small business owners, those who will most acutely experience the ObamaCare morass.  But the negative effects of President Obama’s healthcare reform law will not end with them.  If ObamaCare becomes more embedded in the healthcare sector, all Americans will get to experience its harmful consequences.

Some of the horror stories have been posted on CAGW.org (with the permission of the authors).  As you read them, you will discover real people who had a health insurance plan that they liked, were promised they could keep, and then lost because of ObamaCare.  In spite of what the president said, they knew that their old health insurance was not a “junk” or “substandard” policy that was sold to them by a “bad apple” insurance company.   The policy provided the kind of care they wanted, not what the government forced upon them. More often than not, the ObamaCare health plans they now have are not delivering the benefits they want and are costing more.  

You will read how the cuts to Medicare Advantage plans in order to help pay for ObamaCare are harming many of our nation’s seniors.  (Interestingly, the next round of cuts to Medicare Advantage has been canceled because of squealing from vulnerable Senate Democrats in this election year.) 

As we receive more horror stories from all the “liars” about ObamaCare, they will be posted on our website. Do any of these sound similar to your experience? Let us know by telling your own Obamacare Horror Story!
 

Mike S. of California:

I am 64-years old and a small business owner. My wife and I have had an HSA policy with Anthem for many years. Our premium in 2012 was $540 per month and increased to $670 per month in 2013 in preparation for the start of the Obamacare law. Our new "replacement policy" premium that started in 2014 is $1,269 per month. The plan is not as good as the policy we had. Because of Obamacare, our premium is 2.35 times higher than it was in 2012, an increase of 135% in just two years!
 

Melissa K from Pennsylvania:

My husband owns a crane rental company and the insurance premiums for each employee are going up significantly. One employee, whose wife has health issues, is going to have a rate increase to $2,000 per month! My husband covers all of the insurance costs and will not pass the increases onto the employees, but he will have to raise his rates to his customers. Is this any way to run a business? My brother-in-law's family will lose their insurance at the end of this month because of the Affordable Health Care Act. What is so affordable about this act, that’s what I would like to know?
 

Carol B from Florida:

I lost my favorite doctor because she says she can't practice with all the government interference! My son in NC lost his doctor and my other son and daughter-in-law liked their insurance but lost it because of Obamacare! The administration lied when they said you could keep your plan if you like it!
 

Linda R. from Florida:

I am on Medicare Advantage.  Because of the reimbursement changes ObamaCare made to the program, I lost my doctors and all the co-pays are much more.

 

Virginia F. from Idaho:

I got a cancellation notice from Blue Cross.  At the time I had a catastrophic plan that cost $210 per month with a $2,000 deductible.  I did check on the exchange for the cost of a plan and it was horrible!  The Bronze plan was $530 per month with a $6,700 deductible and a 30 percent co-pay.  Fortunately, Idaho allowed me to keep my plan for a year.  My husband is on Medicare and his costs have also gone up.  We were told by a dermatologist they are no longer taking Medicare patients.

 

Anna M. from Virginia:

I had an individual insurance policy through the Farm Bureau that was deemed "illegal" by ObamaCare and was cancelled 12/31/13.  I later learned Anthem decided that I was "grandfathered" in and could continue my old policy but my premiums went up and I decided it was not worth it. So, now I am without any insurance.  I'll just take my chances

 

Roger S. from Oregon:

In late 2012 my doctor decided to leave medicine because of ObamaCare.  During open enrollment 2013, my plan was dropped by my employer and replaced with a plan that costs more than double what I was paying.  I could not keep my doctor, I could not keep my plan and my costs doubled.  ObamaCare was sold to us on lies.  We need to replace Obamcare with pure market solutions and competition.

 

Mike S. from Colorado:

My insurance company was forced to cancel my high deductible $777 per month family plan.  The least expensive replacement was a plan with a premium of $1147 per month with a higher deductible of $6,000 per person or $12,000 family deductible.  Ouch.

 

William W. from Missouri:

My wife and I own and operate two businesses.  I had a high deductible health plan with an HSA to which I contributed annually.  In 2013, I received notice that my plan was no longer compliant with the new "Affordable Care Act" and that my plan would change.  I worked with a person that helped my wife and I find coverage on the ObamaCare website.  It took over 3 hours to weave our way through the maze of questions and pages of applications to finalize our insurance.  ObamaCare caused my deductible to be reduced but raised my monthly premium.  I also had dental coverage wrapped in my old package, which I lost.  I just found that out when I needed a crown.  My annual income is low and I qualified for subsidies but this would not have been necessary if our government hadn't meddled in the healthcare industry in the first place.  Without the subsidies my cost is almost 1.5 times what I was paying.  If make more this year than last year, my subsidies will evaporate and I will be in worse shape.  Thanks to ObamaCare, my life just got more complicated.  I couldn’t keep the plan I wanted.  At least I get to keep the doctors ... so far.

 

Daniel S. from Ohio:

Simply put, my 2013 plan cost me approximately $14,000 per year for me, my wife, and 2 employees in 2013.  For the same plan in 2014 it would have cost over $20,000 thanks to ObamaCare.  I was able to put this huge increase off for 11 months by renewing my current plan in Dec. 2013 before the law actually took effect.  My increase was about $900 for the year. I have received my quotes for renewal in Dec. 2014 and all of the plans - Bronze thru Platinum, are more expensive than my current plan.  My choice is to pay $6000 to $7500 more per year for the same or a little better coverage or pay $3500 to $5000 more for less coverage

 

Roger N. from California:

My insurer, Kaiser Permanente, informed me my plan was no longer available due to the Affordable Care Act because it didn't meet the requirements of providing a prescription drug plan.  My rate increased 60% from $250 per month to over $350 per month, just so I can get $20 worth of prescriptions per month, which makes no sense.  I don't even use Kaiser's prescription pharmacy because I have found that Costco is cheaper

 

J.D.G. from California:

I'm what you would call the working poor.  I have been underemployed for years and live on about $16,000 per year.  Up to the end of 2013 I got by with no health coverage and went to free clinics when I needed to.  But now, thanks to ObamaCare, I've got insurance.  It's subsidized, about $400 per month, but I am only charged $1 per month.  The catch is the plan has a huge deductible of $5,000 per year, which I can never possibly pay. So in effect I have zero usable coverage.  What makes it worse is, now that I'm "insured" I'm no longer eligible for either the free clinics or free emergency room service.  I would be told to use my insurance, which means coming up with the impossible co-pays.  I would like to see every one of the imbeciles who wrote this law forced to walk in my shoes until they fix it.

 

Reginald R. from North Dakota:

It took almost 20 years for my Blue Cross Blue Shield premiums to go from $350 a month to $738 a month.  In the few years since the passage of ObamaCare my premiums have gone from $738 to $1261 a month.  I just received my rate increase and my premium will now cost an additional $181 for a total of $1442 per month.  Obama told us the law would save us $2500 a year.  The reality is his plan will cost me nearly $8500 more a year.

 

Pam H. from Missouri:

My private insurance was canceled in the fall of 2013.  My only alternative was the healthcare.gov website.  I now pay $150 per month more in premiums, NONE of my doctors are in network, and I have a $6500 deductible for out-of-network providers.  My husband just received a letter from his insurance company stating that they were raising his premiums $300 per month!  So he now pays almost $1000 per month. We are not wealthy, and yet, we are paying exorbitant amounts just because of ObamaCare.  I was very happy with my former insurance plan, and unlike I was promised, couldn't keep it.

 

Clark M. from Washington:

My insurance premium went up 41% as a direct result of ObamaCare.  The law has caused a massive increase in cost and a decrease in coverage.

 

Valerie H. from Florida:

We relocated to Jacksonville last year and were awaiting the 90-day time frame to have insurance provided through my husband's employer.  I am self-employed and don't have any insurance myself.  I was checking insurance rates prior to my husband's employers information being presented to us.  At that time, the rate for my husband, myself, and our young son was $350 a month for total coverage, including dental and vision.  It had a deductible of $2000 and free well-care checks.  Upon receiving our insurance information from my husband's employer, we decided we were not able to pay what they were requiring ($1200 a month for all 3 of us) so we opted to select the plan we found online earlier.  I went back to purchase the plan but by then ObamaCare had kicked in. The same plan was now $1250 a month with a $10,000 deductible!  My rent is $995 a month and I can't afford to pay more than that for insurance. The lowest plan we could find was the emergency plan, only good for emergencies and nothing else, at a cost of nearly $400 a month.  That didn't include well-care for my son, which would be an additional $250 a month through Florida Kid Care.  We applied for assistance with the cost and were denied.  So we are now forced to decide between paying the penalty and being able to see the doctor out-of-pocket as needed, or paying for insurance that we can't afford that doesn't cover anything, and still having to pay to visit the doctor.  Like many other middle class Americans, we work hard to support our family and can't afford an additional $1200 a month, plus doctor costs until the insane deductible is met. The Affordable Care Act is not affordable for us at all and I pray daily that no one in my family gets sick.

 

Donna B. from Texas:

I am a full time graduate student. My field of study is in diabetes in honor of my son who died of the disease.  I earn $800 a month as a graduate assistant and $200 working at my church. When I applied for insurance, I was shocked that based on my income, the "affordable" premium was over $500 a month with a $6000 deductible.  My prescriptions alone without insurance will be another $400 a month.  How is that affordable?  I'm sorry, but the penalty is more affordable for me.  I'll continue to pay for my prescriptions and pray I don't become ill.  I am disappointed.

 

Alex Y. from Michigan:

I am a self-employed, sole-bread winner, husband, and father to three children.  Our individual policy premium increased in price by 26% ($234) in November 2013.  This is a $2,808 annual increase that pushes our total annual premium to $13,620 per year, plus $2,500 deductible per person.  So how is a $2,808 annual increase supposed to be affordable?

 

Clifford P. from Washington:

My wife is 64. We had a major medical policy with Blue Shield, a $3,500 deductible with a premium of $321.00 per month.  In November we received notice that due to ObamaCare the deductible would be $5,000.00 and the premium over $500 per month for the Bronze plan starting Jan 1, 2014.  We canceled the insurance and will wait until her 65th birthday in Oct. 2014 when she will able to sign-up for Medicare.

 

Jay M. from Florida:

I was shocked to find that my health insurance will go from $168 per month to $395 per month. I have contacted my congresswoman Cathy Castor for help.  The response was "go to the web site." I have never asked for one dime of government hand outs since I arrived in this county in 1964.  My mother raised me on her own without any help from a man or the government.  Now our government is doing back flips to subsidize people's health coverage and when I ask for help I get none! The help that has been advertised is certainly not what is happening to me.

 

Ronald T. from North Carolina:

Those who support ACA are either those who qualify for the subsidies or who work for the government or some large organization where they are somewhat insulated from the fallout of the ACA.  But small business owners and the self-employed are opposed to ACA.  I own a small business with my brother.  We received notices of rate increases of about 2.5 times what we had been paying.  Fortunately, we were able to get a reprieve from BCBS so we could keep the policy that we had been using. The same thing happened to the gentleman who owns a small salon and cuts my hair.  His family rates more than doubled and he did not know how he was going to pay for it. Fortunately he got a reprieve too.  The only people who will benefit are those that get a subsidy.  The super rich won’t be affected.  But the middle class and small businesses like ours will be harmed.

 

Lorraine N. from California:

The Medicare Advantage changes have affected me this way. A visit to my doctor, which prior to this year was $25 is now $45.  Tomorrow when I see the two specialists, it will be another $90. Hospital admissions are now more costly, as are deductibles.   Congress took millions of our Medicare dollars, which we paid into, to help finance the Affordable Care Act and then added much more costs to the elderly for treatment.

 

James B. from Florida:

My son has a learning disability.  He has been working at Red Lobster, which is owned by Darden Restaurants, for 25 years as a dishwasher.  The restaurant had excellent medical insurance until ObamaCare.  Now he has to work less than 30 hours per week and has to obtain his own medical insurance.  They also had an excellent profit sharing plan.  Since he will be getting less hours he will have less in his profit sharing each year.

 

Michael W. from California:

I am a biotech entrepreneur in San Diego, having started two successful personalized medicine companies, both eventually employing hundreds of fine people nationwide.  Through both companies, I selected Aetna as our health insurance provider, a relationship dating back to the late 1990s.  As I transitioned to a consulting practice, I selected Aetna for myself and my family, and held this personal policy for about three years, as a satisfied health care consumer.  In late June of 2013, I received a letter from Aetna informing me that they were canceling my family health care policy, due to non-compliance with the ACA regulations, effective January 1st, 2014.  After an extensive search, I was forced to accept a policy from Blue Shield to maintain relatively similar benefits, at a 40% increase in premium.  Today, I am a very unhappy health consumer.  Despite the increased premiums, I now find that several of the network of physicians and health care organizations that I had been using are no longer "in-network" and we have been scrambling to find alternatives.  Each of the medical offices appear to be confused, many are finding out only now that they are no longer an "in-network" provider for many of their patients and their families.  This is an unmitigated disaster - destruction of the best health care on the planet for the transparent purpose of wealth redistribution, and no one is being held accountable. Nor is there any tangible progress towards repealing this legislation.  And the worst is yet to come, as the business community, already limiting employment due to this law, prepares to send tens of millions of innocent, tax-paying Americans out into the streets to fight for demonstrably lower quality care at much higher prices. Americans deserve better.

 

Sara T. from Georgia wrote:

I had a plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia that was working well but is no longer offered at an affordable rate due to the Affordable Care Act. This forced me to turn to the marketplace to seek insurance.  After jumping through multiple hoops with incompetent people and filling out multiple forms I was sent a letter, in the mail, stating that I was eligible for a tax credit.  After receiving the letter I called to find the next step and was advised the letter was not in my file and so I was not eligible for any assistance.  I have been fighting this since October and I am no closer to purchasing a plan.

 

Thomas P. of New Jersey:

I was paying approx $8000 per year for my brother and me.  It was a basic policy and it worked very well for us.  If we keep this policy, it will now cost us over $14,000 per year.  There is nothing affordable about ObamaCare.

 

Therese M from Michigan:

We are a family of 5 and have been without medical insurance for 13 years now.  When we have needed a doctor or a chiropractor, we have paid out-of-pocket.  I don't believe there has ever been a year that we have paid more out-of-pocket expenses than what it would cost us now just to pay monthly premiums for one year on Obamacare.  Plus Obamacare won't pay anything until we pay a $12,000 deductible!  What is the point of buying insurance when we have to pay so much before insurance kicks in?  Also, we are much more interested in alternative therapies, which are not even covered under Obamacare.  So, we're not buying it.  No Affordable Care Act for our family.