So Very, Very Angry

[teddy_radiator]

It's not enough that I was Forced to apply and sign up for Healthcare. It's not enough that I could barely scrape up the premiums every month. It's not enough that the premium doubled at the beginning of the year.

And since my husband and I both work part time with varying hours each week and couldn't estimate properly how much our tax credit would be, we now owe the IRS money. Money that was supposed to pay property taxes and help us do some necessary work around the house this year. And since we still can't say for certain how much we will make this year, we'll be caned again next year as well, I suppose.

People like us are fucked. We don't make enough to properly do anything beyond live, we make too much to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, we can't afford to be ill because the 'insurance' we CAN afford won't pay for anything beyond check-ups.

No chance of even thinking about MISTI, and no chance of doing anything around the house. We have just enough to scrape by paying the property taxes, and that's it. I haven't owed the IRS in almost 30 years, and I'll bet this is just the beginning unless they do something drastic. I just feel like people like us are doomed to be screwed on every side.

Comments

[akatnamedeaster.livejournal.com]

Teds, I'm so sorry hon, the way the system is set up is just designed to fuck those of us in that in that space between needy and all right. It's incredibly unfair and inhumane that we make citizen's quality of life so tied to healthcare costs. You should not be coming out on the losing end of this.

For us, if we didn't have to shell out through the nose for insurance we could have a proper two-bedroom apartment with maybe a place to eat that's not our living room instead of a Junior 4. :P (and still have a $6500 deductible on top of our $650 in premiums every month.)

On Misti, you should try crowdfunding, I swear. I bet a lot of us would be happy to help fund you. Although I totally understand why someone would be hesitant to do so.

[bonsaibetz.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. I'd be happy to chip in on a crowd funding program for you. Though I won't be going to Misti, due to son's birthday and other budgeting, doesn't mean I can't spare a few bucks for you to go.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

Might it not be more cost-effective to give the health insurance the boot and pay the penalty? Since it doesn't pay for anything more than check-ups anyway, it doesn't seem like it's worth the money.

I know... Obamacare is a mash-up. Ideally, he would have just expanded Medicaid/Medicare and had a single-payer system. But he's just as much a lapdog of big business as any Republican. All politicians are, no matter what their party. The insurance industry is making record profits thanks to Obama, and yet still they raise the rates.

[ex-logospil.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the American health "care" (??) system :-(

*tender robed embrace*

I would be one of those who'd happily join in the crowdfunding ♥

[kittylefish.livejournal.com]

i know all too well how you feel. my boat is not that different, except that the sum i make is predictably small, lol. i have no insurance, so this year the few hundred i would normally have had for my tax refund will go to pay the fine because i can't afford insurance. this country is really effed up for folks like us, i have to agree.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

They make you buy insurance (rather than having public health care), and then FINE you if you can't afford it? WTF?

[kittylefish.livejournal.com]

i totally agree with your wtf. i don't get it. the affordable care act is great for people like my sister who make so little money that they really can't afford to live at all if not for living with a family member. for those of us who can kind of limp along on what we make, we are totally screwed. and i saw your comment below and i just recently decided to do that - write letters to all my elected representatives and tell them what it's like for actual working people like me (and the teddys).

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Write to the president, write to your representatives - even if they're Republicans - and write to any advocacy organisations you can. This is the kind of story that needs to be out there - it's an illustration of how current practices drive decent working people into the ground.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

I agree with Dickie; write Obama and your representatives. You're a writer, Teddy. You touch people with your stories. If anyone can tell them what it's like for us "crack babies" (those who are too well-off for Medicaid and too poor to afford insurance. We fall into "the crack"), you can. I personally wish they would just disband the whole thing. I don't visit allopathic physicians anyway, and they don't cover alternative medicine. So not only do I have to be party to something I don't use and have serious doubts about the efficacy of, but I still have to pay a health care provider of my choice if I need one. It's all fucked up.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I actually did write the President last night. I wrote to my Congressmen after finding out my premium doubled. I got a lot of political rhetoric, and not much else.

I tried my best to show the President the entire situation. The problem is they give you a very short amount of space with which to write. I did my best.

It's very frustrating to be in this position.