An Obamacare Success Story

My Obamacare data point: I've been buying my own health insurance on the open market for the past 11 years. For the first 10 years my premium, on average, would increase 10-20% annually. Over time this meant that I simply raised my deductables and co-pays -essentially buying less insurance- in order to keep my insurance affordable. 

Yesterday I received my annual notice from Kaiser Permanente informing me of my rate change for the coming year. Cringing, I hesitantly opened the envelope to discover that my monthly premium is increasing a mere 3%, a whopping $9 per month.  Also, with Obamacare there are no lifetime caps on coverage and I can't be denied coverage for a prexisting condition, two features that were never affordably available to me in the previous 10 years of buying insurance on the open market. I just had to live with those risks.  

In sum, Obamacare provides me with:

1. Significantly better coverage -no lifetime caps or denial for prexisting conditions are possibly the most necessary aspects of health insurance as they are most likely to bankrupt you. 
2. Affordable coverage - I no longer fear being "priced out" of my existing coverage and forced to absorb increasingly more risk with each passing year.
3. Quality healthcare - My Kaiser experience is no different than it ever was. No longer lines, no different access to doctors. It's the same quality care I've always received. 

So don't believe the false propaganda being spread by conservative America. Obamacare is working. The GOP doesn't like Obamacare because it's Obama's legacy. If Romney had introduced it, the GOP would be trumpeting its success left and right and my story -small business owner who purchases health insurance on the open market and ends up with better, more affordable coverage with no change in care quality- would make me the poster boy of the program's success.