Dynamite Sticks at Base of ObamaCare Building

Dynamite – Any person or thing having a spectacular effect.

American Slang

Vague campaign promises meet cold realities.

Washington Post headline,  November 6,  2013

Have you watched those images where a building implodes as dynamite sticks are set off at the base of the structure?

That may be what happens to  ObamaCare in January.   

Dynamite Sticks

The dynamite sticks, in the form of angry or anguished citizens,  include:

·         5.6 million health policy holders who have had their plans canceled.

·         Young people who have not  enrolled  and paid their initial premiums,  instead preferring to absorb the $95 penalties

·         Older citizens  between 35 and 65 who have enrolled and  who. after enrolling, suffer  from sticker shock.

·         “Orphans” who have enrolled but who find their doctors, hospitals,  or health plans don’t know they exist.

·         Patients  who discover they now have a new doctor and new hospital and they can no longer go to their old doctor or hospital.

·         Immigrants who did not have the e- knowledge or e-skills to enroll  and find themselves out in the health care cold.

·         Physicians and hospitals,  many well-respected and widely known,  some of them  world famous “safety-net” institutions,  who find themselves suddenly  excluded from provider networks.

·         Medicare and Medicaid recipients who discover to their astonishment  they cannot find a doctor or that they queue  up for hours or wait for months  to see  a doctor who will accept them.

·         People who  find they are now part of the Medicaid population.

·         Individuals who inadvertently become victims of identity thieves as a result of attempting to enroll via heathcare.gov.

·         Anybody who is e-illiterate  and cannot enroll via healthcare.gov or their state-run counterparts, and finds themselves without health coverage.

In January, Cold Reality Set In

January is when Americans’  health plans go into effect. 

·         In January, you will know who your new doctors or new hospitals will be.

·         In January,  you may learn your previou doctor no longer accepts you because you are a health  exchange patient.

·         In January, you will be paying those new premiums and  shaking your fist at those new deductibles.. 

·         In January you will know  what those new deductibles are, and how much you have to pay out of pocket for office and hospital costs.

·          In January you will learn if your doctor knows you are covered.

·         In January you may find you ar part of the “coverage gap,” i.e.,  you hae insurance but no doctor to see you.

January may be the month millions of Americans become so angry at promises made and services not delivered that they  will explode. 

Social dynamite can be a powerful thing.

Tweet:   In January,   ObamaCare promises and rhetoric   become cold realities, and the consequences may be disruptive and desctuctive.