Collateral damage in the GOP war against President Obama:
With a court decision on Monday declaring the health care law unconstitutional and Republicans intent on repealing at least parts of it, thousands of Americans with major illnesses are facing the renewed prospect of losing their health insurance coverage.
The legislation put an end to lifetime limits on coverage for the first time, erasing the financial burdens, including personal bankruptcy, that had affected many ailing Americans.
For example, Hillary St. Pierre, a 28-year-old former registered nurse who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had expected to reach her insurance plan’s $2 million limit this year. Under the new law, the cap was eliminated when the policy she gets through her husband’s employer was renewed this year.
Ms. St. Pierre, who has already come close once before to losing her coverage because she had reached the plan’s maximum, says she does not know what she will do if the cap is reinstated. “I will be forced to stop treatment or to alter my treatment,” Ms. St. Pierre, who lives in Charlestown, N.H., with her husband and son, said in an e-mail. “I will find a way to continue and survive, but who is going to pay?”
Exactly what will happen to the law’s specific provisions that prevent insurers from imposing lifetime limits and require them to phase out the annual limits now in place is unclear.
And every single one of the GOP Presidential candidates is on-board with putting these people through this, apparently:
A judge’s ruling that called President Barack Obama’s landmark health care overhaul unconstitutional renewed criticism from his potential 2012 rivals, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading the unified pack on Tuesday.
They’re a “unified pack” all right.
Persia
This is a feature, not a bug. Those people weren’t going to vote Republican anyway.
Brachiator
Mitt Romney had previously been instrumental in getting Massachusetts’ state health care program enacted. This plan, by the way, has an individual mandate.
kay
@Brachiator:
I hate that Democrats are so fractious, but if the alternative is this mindless lock-step adherence I’ll it.
Jesus. Imagine being him. He’ll say anything.
Ash Can
Concern for one’s fellow citizens is so elitist. Probably even sociaIist, also too.
kay
@Ash Can:
Ugh. Here’s the response from the GOP.
Listen to this automaton repeat the talking points:
She has a plan!
Loneoak
@kay:
Yes, a plan that no one can afford and the GOP would never enforce.
Paul
{snark}
If Obama hadn’t foolishly pushed HCR, a repeal and its concordant problems would have been unnecessary
{/snark}
RalfW
These are the aresholes who thought Obama would overreach.
Here in MN, the GOP that just took the entire legislature is expected to:
o End affirmative action in colleges and maybe in all state contracting
o Constitutionally ban same-sex marriage (already illegal)
o Impose a voter ID law
o Balance a $6Bn biennial deficit entirely with cuts
I think (hope) they will be in for the spanking of a lifetime in 2010.
kay
@Loneoak:
Why didn’t the judge issue an injunction? I mean, what is that? Cowardice? The very least they could offer is some certainty.
Shouldn’t these people have an opportunity to plan what the hell they’re going to do next?
This is a real high-water mark for conservative recklessness. This worries these people TODAY.
Thoughtcrime
@Ash Can:
And you know what that will lead to, heaven forbid:
msnbc.msn.com/id/41352791/ns/travel-destination_travel/
Keith G
I know that my head is perpetually in Never-Never Land, but it seems to me that now is about the time for advertising from outside groups that spot light the careless and inhumane actions being done by the GOP et al. Since Nov ‘08, the GOP has been a champion at being first to negatively brand progressive ideas and actions. (as in Death Panels). That is part of the reason for their success in Nov.
Since it is not Obama’s style to beat them over the head with their own rhetoric and actions in the last 30 days, I wish some one would. They are not doing the work of angels and that needs to be pointed out.
The Moar You Know
If God had meant her to live, He would have had her be born to parents that would have provided her with an appropriately large trust fund.
Since that did not happen, she must die.
Kryptik
@The Moar You Know:
Don’t you just love that Economic Calvinism?
The Moar You Know
@kay: The spokesdroid is correct. “Die Quickly” accomplishes all of those things.
S. cerevisiae
@Kryptik: Economic Calvinism is perfect. If you cant afford medical care then why did you go and get sick for, huh?
Cris
We think the price is worth it.
tern
My husband is retired military so we use TRICARE. Our oldest son aged out 2 years ago and has been without insurance since. Our younger son will age out in May of this year. Neither has employers that offer insurance. With the passage of NDAA, it was approved for young adults 22-26 to continue to be covered through TRICARE with additional premiums. They haven’t come out with cost yet, but we’re guessing the price will be ridiculous, especially for two healthy young men! However, since we’re getting ready to make some changes at my work, I was going to pick up health insurance there just so we could cover the boys at a reasonable cost. Now, what to do, what to do. You think if this all gets repealed, anyone is going to let me drop the plan? Probably not until the end of the year and it’s open season.
Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Kryptik:
Yes, “Economic Calvinism”. That’s about the best 2-word slogan I’ve heard yet. It sums up almost everything the Republicans believe. It’s too bad that most Americans wouldn’t understand the reference, since it wraps everything up so pithily.
Tehanu
A unified pack of wolves. No, scratch that; insults wolves.
Jay in Oregon
@Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
“Economic Calvinball” also seems to work, too:
smomashup.com/images/calvinball.jpg
Mike in NC
@Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Economic Calvinism and Social Darwinism. Quite a platform to be proud of.
Wile E. Quixote
I wish that Obama had bigger balls. I’d love to see him go to Massachusetts and take on hairpiece, pointing out that the federal plan has a lot in common with the plan that Romney implemented in Massachusetts and used to be quite proud of. Then ask if Romney has flip-flopped on the issue of health care and why. Romney is such a useless bastard, I’d love to see the Republicans do to him what they did to McCain, spend the entire race shitting on him until he wins the nomination and then reluctantly have to vote for him and pointing out how he ran left to win in Massachusetts would be one way to do it.
john b
@Wile E. Quixote:
romney’s only out there is to say that he’s all for each state trying its own thing, but that it’s not the fed’s job to stick its nose into things like that.