AP-GfK poll: Health law seen as eroding coverage

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly.

An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that health care remains politically charged going into next year's congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished HealthCare.gov website running smoothly is just one of Obama's challenges, maybe not the biggest.

The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don't have to be worried about the president's historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured.

In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law's passage.

Sixty-nine percent say their premiums will be going up, while 59 percent say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing.

Think obamacare is politically charged now? Right now is just the lull before the storm, because in early 2014, horror stories will emerge about people with obama-cancelled insurance not being able to continue their chemo therapy, trauma patients being denied care at designated trauma centers and hospital emergency departments being swamped with people unable to see their doctor. This will start happening in January, become a deluge in February, and turn into a tsunami of death by March 2014, at which time voters will start hunting Democrats down in the streets with pitchforks and dogs. And a well-deserved hunt it will be too, because people are going to die as obamacare sends our existing health care system into total chaos.

This one really struck me. THIS is what government does. It takes from those who produce and gives to those who don't. Along the way it takes something good and functional and smashes it to smithereens, while its employees (slackjawed nepotism hires) slap together a grossly overpriced papier-mache mockery to take its place all the while hoping no one will notice. It really is a theater of the absurd. Damn these democrats and the morons that voted for them.

We were happy with our insurance. I paid for a private policy and my husband was on our state's high risk pool plan. Unfortunately, the high risk pool was cancelled because of Obamacare. My policy's costs rose dramatically; my husband's disappeared. We had NO CHOICE but to go online and apply for Obamacare. After numerous attempts and many hours, we did sign up. This was in October. It took a month for us to receive a letter in the mail from BCBS. It said we could pay our premium online - which we were unable to do. We called BCBS. We were transferred from department to different department. NONE of them could find us in their system. We have called back weekly. We were told to make a copy of the letter and send them a check. That was over 3 weeks ago. They still have NOT cashed our check so we still do not have insurance. We haven't been slack. What the hell are we supposed to do?? My husband has major medical expenses. He needs insurance on January 1. BCBS doesn't have a record of us. They asked for the ID number. I gave it to them. They didn't see it. They asked for a number that started with "W". I said "there is no such number on this letter. This is a MESS. Why did they take away our insurance? We have always paid for our insurance. Now the government has destroyed our peace of mind. HELP.

My sister, a single Mom, has encountered a nightmare too. Her rates have doubled; her deductible has tripled. She stresses each month trying to pay her bills. NOW, Washington has chosen to help others and hurt her. This is not right. The government shouldn't be choosing who to help and whom to hurt. It's just plain wrong.

They have really made a mess of things. I know some are saying this was done on purpose, but I’m not sure I believe that.

They’ve totally lost people’s trust, for sure they didn’t mean to do that.

They really are a bunch of bumbling boobs and I guess they’ve made the great error of believing their own press.

And as much as I’d like to just enjoy the spectacle I know there are going to be many people who suffer real harm because of this, and I don’t know what can be done to help them.

And for all the snarking that some do deserve(the NY Times piece was a classic) not EVERYBODY who’s getting screwed over here voted for these dopes. If I knew for a fact that was the case I could just laugh, but it isn’t.

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