Our guest today is Greta Frost, who says she's angry that President Obama took away her health care plan that she was very happy with. Greta, can you tell us what happened?
Thank you, Dana. Well, I work as a cashier at a diner and we were all getting along quite fine without a health plan until Darla, one of the waitresses, got a goiter and the hospital costs got so much she had to move to a shipping container over by the rail yard and now the only kind of bath she can get is in the sink in our Ladies' Room. So I went shopping for a group plan, but since so many of the workers at the diner are young and believe all that Obamacare nonsense they didn't want to go in on it, so I put together an application with some ladies here in Durham who like to get together and watch Modern Family every week.
We got a policy from a company called ClarioCare, which was a division of Shepard's Heating and Cooling, and while $310 a month sounds like a lot of money, it was much better than what the others were charging, and I found that it suited my needs. Naturally there were some things they couldn't cover, like my hysterectomy. And I understand that, they're a business, they have to make money same as we all do.
But they were there for me in other ways. For example, last year I cut my finger pretty bad on a slicer at work, and they shipped me next-day air a big box of Band-Aids, or I should say Curad strips. When I wrote back and told them that the Curad strips didn't stick very well to my skin, they wrote right back to apologize and explained that all their Curad strips had got soaked in Hurricane Sandy, and they sent another big box of Curad strips and a tub of Elmer's Glue-All. So I felt like they were really looking out for me.
Well, last week I got this letter from ClarioCare and I was fit to be tied because it said thanks to Obama, not only were they going to get rid of my policy, but they were getting out of the insurance business altogether to concentrate on heating and cooling and also real estate, and they sent me a free invitation to a seminar about that as a parting gift. I appreciated the gesture but what I did not appreciate was Obama taking away this insurance plan that I was very happy with. If I cut myself again, or, God forbid, get cancer, who's going to send me Curad strips? So I haven't even been to that Obamacare website which I hear doesn't work anyway, and I'm not going to call them on the phone or send in any forms. Instead I'm going around to all the talk shows that the nice people from that Foundation want to put me on, and tell people my story, and I'm sure once they've heard it, they'll agree that the answer to all our health care problems in this country is health savings accounts and tort reform.
Sickeningly accurate.
ReplyDelete"I'll take real health insurance when you put it in my cold, dead hands."
ReplyDeleteYou laff (I know I do), but yesterday NPR had on a 28-year-old Pilates coach who thought she didn't need health insurance until, one day last year, she woke up with two (2) kidney stones. The med bills were "astronomical." So now she's thinking seriously about applying for O-care.
ReplyDeleteWhat no one asked her was, "How did you pay the astronomical med bills?" ("I sent them to John Stossel," I wanted her to say. Fat chance!)
Very Firesign.
ReplyDeleteUg, you liberals. If you'd ever eaten a heartland supermarket sheet cake, you'd be in favor of torte reform too.
ReplyDeleteSo I haven't even been to that Obamacare website which I hear doesn't work anyway, and I'm not going to call them on the phone or send in any forms.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny a' cause its true.
All that's missing is a bit of barely-concealed racism about "those people" getting free stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe an allusion to meeting Steve Forbes in a green room, and what a wonderfully smart man he is about everything.
Though I think Roy cleaned up the misspellings. And we all know it's not easy to transcribe from crayon.
ReplyDeleteJesus fuck. I just listened to one of these dimbulbs call in to the Diane Rehm show---a self-identified democrat from the South--who said that there was no way she was going to look on the ACA website 'cause it was all fucked up and probably dangerous. The local paper did a cover story on this member of the National Strategic Brainpower Reserve:
ReplyDeletehttp://roanoke.com/news/2340451-12/headache-begins-where-health-insurance-ends.html
who trotted out the same complaint about the rates his insurance broker was quoting him. Your insurance broker? What th' fuck? Didn't it ever occur to you that you never see the guy at his office before nine or after four and he's always driving a two-year-old car? And (of course) he hadn't even checked the insurance exchange to see what a Bronze plan would cost, 'cause that would take time out of his schedule of non-stop bitching about how he can't buy a shit plan with a $10,000 deductible any more.
You know, I don't actually mind that all these half-wits want to live in a third-world country---after all, that's all they want to pay for, isn't it? I only wish they weren't too fuckin' lazy to pack up their shit and move.
"Ms. Frost, I have Ms. Van Susteren on the line, and even she says you're an ignorant dumbshit."
ReplyDeleteThe don't meet Steve Forbes in a green room. They meat Steve Forbes in a blue room.
ReplyDeleteThis is a marvelous story -- I could swear that Greta is my next door neighbor, but her name isn't Greta. Funny thing, I get calls from that Foundation, too. They wanna use me for some kind of Tea Party paradime. All's I know is, thanks to Binder & Binder and some acting classes at the Learning Annex, I got on disability, an what with the Food Stamps, welfare, unemployment insurance, tax credits, and the free sub-prime mortgage from Barney Frank, I now make close to $180,000 a year. (The way things are going, pretty soon I'm gonna start bitching about Obama's talk of raising taxes on incomes over $250k. Ha ha.) And I just got a free Titanium healthcare package from Obamacare that I used for breast implants and a nose job, so my 9 children go to the doctor every day for free, but not all at once cuz they don't all fit in the Cadillac.
ReplyDeleteSomehow this reminds me of a Barthelme story.
ReplyDeleteI'm just waiting for people to start defending their loan sharks. Why do we need these damn usury laws, anyway? Look, some people want to drink from a red Solo cup, and some people are fine with getting their thumbs broken if they can't pay the vig.
ReplyDeleteDifferent strokes, guys.
Our only option is to become stupider and angrier. Then blame liberal infiltrators for all our fuckups.
ReplyDeleteAs Larry Kirwan said, "No sick days or benefits, and for Christ's sake don't get hurt, 'cos the quacks over here won't patch you up 'less they see the bucks up front."
ReplyDeleteGreta is from Donkeydump, Utah.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in the insurance industry, and the Mafia has better business ethics.
ReplyDeleteMango from the comments:
ReplyDeleteOwebamacare is destruction by design. After they lied and got the entire government controlled media behind them, including the DNC stenographers at the Roanoke Times, the Owebama regime knew that people would lose their plans and that there would be mass confusion leading towards a one payor system.
Heavens forgend, SINGLE PAYER!!!!
Oh, they know that a laissez faire third-world Nirvana is just around the corner, if they can just outlast the bleeding heart liberals.
ReplyDeleteThey really don't want to move. They want to make it happen here.
See, what you need to do there is get the Cadillac SUV so you can tow your Cadillac behind your Cadillac. Have another kid, they'll just let you trade your benefits voucher for the car title.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking Sukenick.
ReplyDeleteLousier retirement plan, though.
ReplyDeleteLawson, the owner and publisher of Credit Today , an online publication, bristled at suggestions that his Anthem plan was not a good option for someone in his financial situation.
ReplyDelete"To be told that basically I'm too stupid to understand what I'm buying, and the insurance plan I purchased is substandard, is offensive to me," he said.
This is his publication. My sympathy is limited.
You know who else liked tortes?
ReplyDeleteWell, me, actually. There was this konditorei in Lincoln Square in Chicago that was just heavenly, and I haven't been the same since it closed.
You'd be surprised.
ReplyDeleteI once got talked into working for a neighbor's agency. Before I took the test for my license, I was told the agency provided free leads. After I passed, the leads were suddenly three bucks each. Told the guy to stuff it.
ReplyDeleteAbout ten years later, my father called and said he needed to talk to me, what had I been doing, the state insurance examiner had been calling repeatedly. Turned out, I never worked for the guy, but my name had appeared as the agent on a bunch of phony policies from the neighbor's agency. In the meantime, the guy had fled to, where else?, Florida. I guess he'd been collecting origination fees, using them to pay the first month's premium on the policies and raking off the difference.
Was one of those times where I was happy to provide an affidavit toward somebody's arrest. Smedley Butler should have said war--and insurance--is a racket.
Anthem plan - Bronze, Fountainhead - Silver, Atlas - Gold.
ReplyDeleteDNC stenographers in Roanoke, Virginia. My, my, my. They're everywhere now.
ReplyDeleteYou're gonna need a bigger "boat."
ReplyDelete"Have another kid, they'll just let you trade your benefits voucher for the car title."
ReplyDeleteWhat a rip-off those car dealers are! Why I bet they'll make three times the cost of the car from those vouchers!
"Our only option is to become stupider and angrier."
ReplyDeletealicublog million-dollar idea: Put this in fancy, old fashioned writing on a flag, maybe add a rampant snake, and sell it to the brethren. Ted Nugent alone will buy a gross.
"They really don't want to move. They want to make it happen here."
ReplyDeleteYes, they felt they could survive the loss of slavery, but when those damn Civil Rights laws made it illegal to discriminate, they knew there was nothing worth saving in the US governmental system.
"I'll take real health insurance when you put it in my cold, dead hands."
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Why didn't I think of that? No, don't bother, I'm sure my wife will tell me later.
Thank you both.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on. My Dad was born and raised in Superior and I can tell you that in Wisconsin they know how to make those things and make 'em good, so that they last.
ReplyDeletePlywood: "We The Living".
ReplyDeleteI've had a few from the Milwaukee area, and can second that...
ReplyDeleteWell, Lawson, let's break it down. The insurance plan you've purchased ... Hmm, let's see ... carry the two ... is in fact substandard.** Based on your assertion, you don'tseem to understand this. And --- and this is the essential bit --- rather than doing anything whatsoever to rectify your lack of understanding***, you'd rather just blame the big gubmint socialist Obama. So basically, you're too stupid to understand how to operate a paper bag, let alone health insurance. Sorry if that offends you, you reactionary fuckwit****.
ReplyDelete**$597/mo for a plan with a $10,000 deductible, but "unlimited" coverage after that? An enterprising sort should doublecheck that "unlimited." Because we know what "$50 copay" actually meant, and given that Anthem are still offering catastrophic care plans for about that price in Virginia, there's obviously a reason why this particular policy didn't measure up.
***But hey, if you like paying $600 a month in order to pay out-of-pocket for every even-remotely routine health expense, you and your family could apparently get a catastrophic 100% POS plan from CoventryOne for $405 / month, which may or may not impose the PPACA maximum $12,700 deductible you refer to. Oh, and preventative services would be covered regardless.
****Seriously, according to healthcare.gov, the highest premium for a high-deductible catastrophic care plan is $560/month. Anthem's priciest gold-level plan in Virginia is $1056/month before subsidies. Which is to say, there is no way in hell your only alternative is $1200/month with a $12,500 deductible. So perhaps you're merely extremely gullible, and your insurance broker is the stupid one. But then again, I was able to figure this out in less than five minutes, and you'd rather throw around "Orwellian" like a reactionary fuckwit. So, nah ... you're stupid.
[NB: Despite my harsh, unforgiving tone, my taxes will still help subsidize the purchase of a non-substandard plan, up to 400% of the poverty level, if such would otherwise be beyond your means . You're welcome.]
... Well, shit. Now that I'm trying to find details about catastrophic care plans, I find that they're supposed to be limited to people under 30 or those with "hardship exemptions." So yeah, unless this guy and his family qualify for hardship exemption, or there's a state-specific subtlety I'm missing, he apparently can't keep a catastrophic care plan. He's stuck with spending a mimum of $600/month on a Bronze plan, which covers 60% of costs. Well-off self-employed people over thirty who prefer to pay large sums up front for medical care are getting the short end of the stick after all. I withdraw all the above invective.
ReplyDeleteI think you guys are extremely negative about this woman. As far as I can see she is lightyears ahead of the kind of moron who is satisfied living under a bridge and eating sparrows roasted on a bent curtain rod as long as the person doing the same thing under the next bridge doesn't even have a curtain rod. She's actually actively seeking to avoid saving money and proposing to end up in debt up to her eyeballs in defense of Ted Cruz's right to a subsidized employer based health care policy worth 40,000 dollars a year.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is Glenn Beck's slogan--didn't he write a book entitled "the conspiracy to keep you stupid and poor?"
ReplyDeleteThis is straight up what Rush Limbaugh argued. SteveM was quoting it over at NoMoreMr.NiceBlog. Limbaugh's argument is that even the computer cock up at the ACA is just a form of vicious, Democratic, creative destruction designed to send even loyal republicans shrieking into the streets demanding single payer.
ReplyDeletedesigned to send even loyal republicans shrieking into the streets demanding single payer.
ReplyDeleteOkay, if I ever live to see that day, I will take back every criticism of Democrats' healthcare reform tactics. Because that would be twenty-two dimensional chess at a minimum.
I know. SteveM basically said "I'll have what she's having..." like the old woman in the scene in When Harry Met Sally. Reading Rush Limbaugh's version of reality is like entering a Fringe-like alternate dimension in which Obama is truly evil spock.
ReplyDeletethe DNC stenographers
ReplyDeleteShirley the mangoist meant 'steganographers'.
OT but I can't help myself: Roy, would you use your NYC contacts to encourage the WSJ editors to start a "Draft Rob Ford" movement? He hates bikes! He's a belligerent asshole! He'll be on the market soon! He might be a crack addict, but at least he's not Bill de Blasio!
ReplyDeleteHe's published a bunch of books, but not his business plan.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Heritage Foundation!
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a fire insurance underwriter for 30 years and he called it a "racket."
ReplyDeleteroanoke.com
ReplyDelete[Bangs head on wall.] At least he's not going off about how it's part of Agenda 21, which is an improvement.
Wait, the entire media is government controlled and Obama still had to lie to get them behind him? You really can't get good help these days.
ReplyDeleteSo, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, is what you're saying.
ReplyDeletea rampant snake
ReplyDeleteHeraldry pedant says
A beast rampant is depicted in profile standing erect with forepaws raised.
You have to go with a wyvern or lindworm if you want forepaws. Snakes can be glissant or .
Heraldry pedant says
ReplyDeleteOooh, who died and made you Garter Principal King of Arms?
... Seriously, is the incumbent Garter Principal King of Arms okay?
Snakes can be glissant or nowed.
IYKWIMAITYD.
Bonus rampants.
ReplyDeleteSee? I knew Obummercare didn't work. He LIED when he said if I was happy with my shitty fake insurance policy I could totally keep it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, folks, what a crock of horseshit. So a guy campaigns and uses hyperbole and simplification to describe the concept behind his idea of healthcare reform, which is that he's not going to change legimitate group health insurance provided by employers.
Then he gets elected and the policy goes through the legislative process we all know is subject to compromise, pork-giving, lobbying, and pot-sweetening. Then there are unforeseen complications.
So the thing rolls out five years later, and suddenly there are all these people who DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIM ANYWAY complaining that the bicycle Santa left under the tree isn't the right color and doesn't have the shiny dingaling bell they wanted.
Yes I fully understand - there was a Suisse konditorei a few blocks from where I grew up in the 50s and 60s and being 50% Swiss I grew up spending a good portion of my measly allowance in there when ever I could :)
ReplyDeleteI'm just waiting for people to start defending their loan sharks.
ReplyDeleteAlready being done.
Which also reminds me of this.
Those people ARE the dingalings. They don't need no stinkin' bells.
ReplyDeletePlease please please - take him - we don't want him up here anymore - well actually I doubt we ever did come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteUp next: Vox Day tells us that only gamma males let their bitches take slut pills.
ReplyDeleteYou can't beat him for name recognition, though.
ReplyDeleteGarance Franke-Ruta got this one right, I think. It's not the number of people who are being hurt by Obamacare that's the problem, it's who those people are. And in large part that's libertarian entrepeneurs who, no, aren't going to vote for the Democrat in any case but who are going to bitch loudly and who won't have any trouble finding a media shoulder to cry on. The poor, working and otherwise, have been invisible for the longest time.
ReplyDeleteRoy, when you're up this high, walking the razor-thin line between reality and satire, I hope you're wearing a parachute, because when you shave the line as thin as you have with this piece, it could slip into the dimensional rift between What Is and What Should Never Be. And there you are, 37000 feet up, and, this being America, no safety net to speak of...
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thing has been missing from the Internet since TBogg hung up his keyboard.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but the word got hit with a Thagomizer.
ReplyDelete(Good news: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/category/panic-in-funland/ )
ReplyDeleteDidn't you hear? TBogg is back at the Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/category/panic-in-funland/. With basset pix!
ReplyDeleteAlso available in "Fun Size"
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/tbogg
It took me a while to figure out your name, but now I can read the writing on the wall.
ReplyDeleteMark, TBogg is now up at Raw Story with a new shingle "Panic in Funland".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/rs/category/panic-in-funland/
'Far Side' images are never out of place.
ReplyDeleteold woman in the scene in When Harry Met Sally Fun fact: the old woman was Rob Reiner's mom (aka Mrs. Carl Reiner)
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
ReplyDeleteThat is very instructive. Maybe there is some twenty-two dimensional chess going on.
ReplyDeleteYup. How'd you like that to be your main claim to fame?Actually, I always thought the whole family must have been really, really, fun.
ReplyDeleteWow nice blogspot blog. Really appreciable for stunning post. thanks a lot
ReplyDelete