Why Obamacare Failed in a Nutshell: Vox does a Great Job of Reporting it

I read Vox as one of my trips out of the echo-chamber into the liberal blogosphere and this article summed up exactly why Obamacare failed.

Oller renewed 59-year-old Ruby Atkins’s Obamacare coverage just after lunchtime on a Tuesday. Atkins and her husband received a monthly tax credit that would cover most of their premium. But they would still need to contribute $244 each month — and face a $6,000 deductible.

Atkins said she had insurance before the Affordable Care Act that was significantly more affordable, with $5 copays and no deductible at all. She said she paid only $200 or $300 each month without a subsidy.

The deductible left Atkins exasperated. “I am totally afraid to be sick,” she says. “I don’t have [that money] to pay upfront if I go to the hospital tomorrow.”

Atkins’s plan offers free preventive care, an Obamacare mandate. But she skips mammograms and colonoscopies because she doesn’t think she’d have the money to pay for any follow-up care if the doctors did detect something. 

So basically Ms. Atkins pays $244 a month for a chance to pay less than $6000 for care. She actually skips the preventive care because it might put her on the hook for $1000s of out-of-pocket costs. Everyone talks about how Obamacare increased coverage, and had subsidies to help you pay premiums, but that $6000 deductible is outrageous. Why have insurance if you are going to have to pay full freight for almost everything anyway? That is why Obamacare has been a disaster and needs to change.