Obamacare horror stories

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers posted an image on her official Facebook page, slamming the Affordable Care Act on the fifth anniversary of President Obama signing it into law. She asked constituents to share their Obamacare nightmare stories and well, the response probably wasn't what she expected. Below are a small sample of the comments constituents left on her page:

My story is that I once knew 7 people who couldn't get health insurance. Now they all have it, thanks to the ACA and President Obama, and their plans are as good as the one my employer provides--and they pay less for them. Now, that's not the kind of story you want to hear. You want to hear made-up horror stories. I don't know anyone with one of those stories.

[and so on]

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Our own Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in the interests of dispassionate inquiry, recently posed the following scientific question about the Affordable Care Act to the Internet:

“This week marks the 5th anniversary of Obamacare being signed into law. Whether it’s turned your tax filing into a nightmare, you’re facing skyrocketing premiums, or your employer has reduced your work hours, I want to hear about it.

“Please share your story with me so that I can better understand the challenges you’re facing.”

Well, one week and nearly 10,000 shared stories later, the congresswoman probably has learned at least one thing: Never ask the Internet a slanted question. Because nothing slants back at you quite like the Internet.

From the very first comment (“My story is that I once knew 7 people who couldn’t get health insurance, and now they all have it, thanks to the ACA …) to the 9,880th (“I was recently diagnosed with Fibromuscular Dysplasia and thanks to Obamacare, I know I won’t be dropped by my insurance carrier”), McMorris Rodgers got an avalanche of stories.

All of which she ignored when she called for the total repeal of the law the next day.

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Here’s what she told the Spokesman-Review:

McMorris Rodgers said Monday that many of the success stories seemed to be centered on reforms that both parties agreed on, rather than her concerns with the health care package.

“The stories are largely around pre-existing conditions and those that are getting health insurance up to age 26,” she said. “That’s broad, bipartisan support for those provisions.”

In other words, the coverage expansion that Obamacare has produced (and that people who responded to her are thankful for) is mainly due to the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions and for those up to 26 years old — and because those individual provisions have bipartisan support, they don’t really count as Obamacare!