On August 7, 2013, I had a letter to the editor published in USA Today on Obamacare, aka the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (ACA). I would like to repeat it here, not only for what it said, but, more importantly, for it being the genesis of what came to me thereafter; there is a lesson to be learned and everyone reading this post should hear it loud and clear.
Forty-eight hours later, I received a one-page, single-spaced, typed letter in the mail postmarked Aug. 9 from Columbus, Ohio, and dated the same day as my LTE. The author, signed "JOHN-athan DOE-buck (an alias, HA! HA!)", said he (?) was sending the LTE to upwards of 500-750 individuals, and that President Obama was a "fascist, socialist and Marxist P-I-G whose sole ultimate goal [was] to transform the land I cherish and love into a Venezuela II." He described Obama with other four-letter and+ words not suited for publication here. You can probably figure some of them out, however. But, then, this letter attacked Obamacare, and how the majority of states not establishing exchanges will kill Obamacare; insurance rates will rise to extraordinary heights by the insurance companies too. The letter concluded, "... you are an idiot Miles, someone I feel sorry for as you OBVIOUSLY have an IQ that's fighting to reach double digits, a goal you will never reach!" I guess the latter was in reference to my LTE and its considerable published support for Obamacare.
Not too long thereafter, I was approached by an acquaintance from my high school days. He has a radio program and is out of Rolla, Mo. He invited me to be a guest on his program. The station also airs Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, so I knew I would be heading into "enemy" territory. At the time of the invite, my acquaintance peppered me with statements online (fB) suggesting that the impact of delays for employers to participate in Obamacare would have quite a deleterious effect on small businesses; insurance premiums will soar; out-of-pocket caps will exceed $12,500, and that the cheapest plan according to the IRS will exceed $20,000 for a health plan. My response to all these statements of supposed fact was, NO, NO, NO. And as for insurance premiums, read the recent post by former insurance exec, Wendell Potter; it is excellent. Suffice it to say I declined to "appear" on radio, figuring that his callers were probably of the ilk of the person who penned the typed letter about which I have just spoken.
The point of this post -- and given what I have described above -- is that ignorance, fear of the unknown and not knowing about Obamacare are driving those who say they oppose it. Not knowing something, or fearing it, can always motivate citizens to doubt what comes from a piece of legislation. Just re-read the snippets from the letter I received, above, and you will know why. And when you add to this politicians whose only concern is to keep their jobs, the elixir becomes especially distasteful, and, well, full of falsehoods and lies. Of course, there may still be thousands of others who just don't care for Obama for one reason or another and therefore do not want "his" health care around, or that a person of color has achieved a monumental victory affecting the health care of the nation and its citizens in a very positive way that those of another race could never achieve despite having a century in time to do so (since Teddy Roosevelt's days).
In the end, for anyone who believes that health care should be a right to which all of us should have equal access and have a reasonable opportunity to afford (as I do, as do millions of Americans), embrace the new health law as the sentry of this philosophy. By doing so, any challenges by those who would have you believe that ACA is not good for the nation's population will be treated as if they are water cascading off a duck's back.