NC is a mean state.\u00a0 Evil really.\u00a0 It’s no secret I despise the Affordable Care Act, primarily because of the legal mandate to participate in a very broken system.\u00a0 However despite it being the worst precedence setting law in the history of the US I do like the fact that it allowed people with preexisting conditions to get insurance if they can afford it on the “exchange”.\u00a0 Can’t afford those prices?\u00a0 Many states now allow poor individuals to enroll in federally supplemented Medicaid, this was the “medicare expansion” heard about in the media.<\/p>\n
Then there is NC and everything disdainful and vile about it.\u00a0 NC’s beloved GOP refused to participate in the exchange and refused federal Medicaid expansion, essentially refusing any benefits of the ACA.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the state didn’t want to owe the federal government<\/a>.\u00a0 Never mind the first 5 years of fed funding were absolutely free, no payback required.\u00a0 So where does this leave poor individuals without families in NC?\u00a0 Out in the dirt to die, that’s where.\u00a0 NC only offers Medicaid to low income families, the long term disabled, the elderly and the blind.<\/p>\n Any individual who cannot afford to buy private health insurance must go without.\u00a0 To stick a hot knife in their misery the IRS will come to collect their tax penalty.\u00a0 That’s right, impose a tax penalty on those who have the least income in the country.\u00a0 Fucking brilliant.\u00a0 Oh I know, the idea was to get college kids to get insurance to balance the risk for insurance companies.\u00a0 It’s really just a hot poker in the eye of NC’s least fortunate.\u00a0 Yep, I have a personal example:<\/p>\n A very close friend earned a whopping total of $14,000 last year, including money under the table.\u00a0 She works approximately 35 hours a week. Her reported income was just over $7500 on her tax returns.\u00a0 She pays her own rent and lives humble by anyone’s standards, still using an old prepaid flip phone that believe it or not, Obama did not give to her.\u00a0 She looked into insurance during open enrollment for the ACA.\u00a0 Every Blue Cross and Cigna plan was WAY too expensive.\u00a0 With no family she did not qualify for Medicaid.\u00a0\u00a0 Monday she went to a gastroenterologist she was referred to by Raleigh’s Open Door Clinic.\u00a0 They found a tumor in her sigmoid colon.<\/p>\n The GI referred her to a surgeon immediately.\u00a0 She’s meeting with them today.\u00a0 She told them on the phone she was uninsured and poor.\u00a0 They said “come talk to our finance people”.\u00a0 It will be interesting to hear how that turns out.\u00a0 Basically medical offices want to be paid up front any deductibles and\u00a0 co-pays.\u00a0 Recently Amy and I were required to pay for a whole procedure up front even though we have insurance.\u00a0 Then our insurance company cut us a check back but the surgeon would not perform the procedure without being paid first.<\/p>\n If this is any kind of payment policy the surgeons office follows where my friend is taking her colon cancer she’s screwed.\u00a0 Worst case they won’t operate.\u00a0 Best case they charge her full price, no pre-negotiated rates, and she pays them very little every month until they take her to court, obtain a judgement, garnish her future wages and taxes.\u00a0 A lot for a survivor to look forward to.<\/p>\n This problem is not contained to NC.\u00a0 I grew up believing America is the best country in the world.\u00a0 That American’s looked out for each other.\u00a0 That we are all born equal.\u00a0 I will not make the same mistake of letting my kids grow up believing any such idealistic bullshit about America.\u00a0 Many, many Americans now firmly hold the position that it’s every man\/woman for themselves, owing nothing to anyone but their banks.\u00a0 That everything boils down to personal choices and responsibility and that everyone starts on a level playing field.\u00a0 In other words they believe in a farce wrapped in a fantasy sold as a lie.\u00a0 The only thing they’ve gotten correct is how self centered and self serving many have become in a nation putting up a lame front of being selfless.<\/p>\n The America I believed in is gone.\u00a0 It now belongs to greed and self serving religious hard asses who think more of themselves than they do others.\u00a0\u00a0 All the while riding their pretentious high horse of self grandeur, constantly judging others.\u00a0\u00a0 What would Jesus do?\u00a0 Not one damn thing the way those who use his name as a defense are doing now.\u00a0\u00a0 He would help people.\u00a0 Not hurt them to protect his precious personal gains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NC is a mean state.\u00a0 Evil really.\u00a0 It’s no secret I despise the Affordable Care Act, primarily because of the legal mandate to participate in a very broken system.\u00a0 However despite it being the worst precedence setting law in the history of the US I do like the fact that it allowed people with preexisting … Continue reading Underemployed, poor and now colon cancer – North Carolina is an evil state.<\/span>