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Joshua Pittman is a 31-year-old self-employed videographer from Montgomery, Alabama. A libertarian Republican who voted for Ron Paul in 2012 and believes that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is the future of the GOP, Pittman sees Barack Obama’s presidency as a “failure” who hasn’t lived up to the nation’s expectations.
But on Tuesday morning, Pittman logged on to HealthCare.gov and after some initial glitches and delays, successfully enrolled in a Bronze-level Obamacare health insurance plan. “It took me all day, really,” he says with a laugh. “It kicked me out and told me you have to try again, but I knew what I was getting into with so many people exploring it.”
Though he initially supported repealing the law, Pittman became curious about Obamacare in the days and weeks before it launched. For years, he had gone uninsured, thinking he’d be able to “get over anything with a bandaid and a six pack of beer.” But a lead poisoning incident earlier this year shook his confidence and bank account, leading him with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. “I was a healthy person and it really depleted me financially, so it made me look at things in a different way than I would before. I understood the importance of people being insured.”
“I’ve seen first hand people hitting up the emergency room for free health care and then putting a burden on [everyone else] and that’s not something I would want to do, I want to take personal responsibility … By no means am I trying to take a government handout…it’s not a free handout, you’re paying for this health care, but it’s making it more accessible to more people.”
Asked what he liked about Obamacare, Pittman highlighted its prohibition against denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, noting that he wouldn’t be able to find coverage without it, and said that the policies offered in the marketplace seemed more affordable and comprehensive than those available to him on the individual market.
This is just the beginning.
It will not take too long for people to really start signing up en masse and I have the feeling we are going to see a whole lot more of these testimonials appearing all over the internet.
I also think that the Republicans have realized that which is why they are walking away from the subject in droves.
Woo hoo! Republicans were dreading the success of the ACA. Nice to see their worst nightmares come true.
ReplyDeleteOT -- today, October 5th, marks the dread 2nd anniversary of Princess deciding not to run for president in 2012. Oh the tears over at the pee pond! The anguish! The gnashing of teeth! Too funny.
If you're in the mood for a chuckle, check out Brian double bum's (H/T Irishgirl) post this morning. Hilarious.
Where do they get the idea that the emergency room visits are FREE? They come after you to pay the bill. Just because W thought so, that does not make it so.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I was once rushed to an ER by ambulance, because I had an acute asthma attack. Because I was uninsured, I was more worried about how I was going to pay for the visit instead of trying to get better.
DeleteHowever, I did have reason to be concerned, The ER & ambulance bills showed up at my door at whopping four thousand dollars combined!
I applied for medical assistance and was denied. My yearly salary of 15K, which supports a family of four was considered as too much money.
Because if you don't pay the in the 1000's bill - it is free. He did acknowledge that this puts the burden on others - as in rising costs etc. And he's right.
DeleteAnd, in many cases, people who are uninsured let their small health problems go unattended until they become serious emergencies, costing much more than if they had taken care of them sooner.
DeleteMuch greater financial cost and much more difficult recovery for the patient.
Dur dee dur dee dur...
ReplyDeleteSo it turns out that it's not just "the poors" who can get sick. ..
What?
Is Republican = totally unaware of life?
I think so.
Yep! The old, "I got mine, so screw you, if you can't get yours!"
DeleteWhy do they have to be personally affected by a health crisis before they "get it"? It happens over and over and over again. I guess that explains why they consider "bleeding-heart liberal" an insult.
ReplyDeleteThis actually makes me so angry. There are millions of people like him. They are incapable of understanding anything until it happens directly to them. Yet they are allowed to vote out of gnorance and make things difficult for those who DO understand.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same thing with the GOP politicians. They bitch about giving aid for disasters, but man they have their mitts out when the shit hits their states. Just look at the bastard from Colorado, he voted down Sandy relief but begged the feds to help with the flooding in Boulder. Fucking hypocrites!
DeleteBut, but, but...all those other people didn't DESERVE health care, or disaster relief. They're just moochers, remember?
DeleteAfter 5 years it seems the media is slowly discovering the GOP they have aided and abetted is bringing the country to its knees
ReplyDelete"Sarah Palin finally got her death panels — a direct blow from the Republican House. In shutting down the government, leaving 800,000 people without a paycheck and draining the economy of $300 million a day, the Party of Madness also took away last-chance cancer trials for children at the National Institutes of Health."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/wrong-side-of-history/?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Not surprising to hear more good reports. It IS affordable to those who couldn't afford it before, AND it allows those with pre-existing illnesses and conditions to enrol. What is so harmful in that? What drives the critics (who all are well insured) to try to stop those from having the same peace of mind, expensive surgeries, preventative treatments, and yearly check-ups?) How is it so difficult for these insured rich-class critics to say to themselves, they have no problem paying a few extra dollars in taxes to give the same benefits to those who are suffering?
ReplyDeleteIs it so hard for these critics, Palin, Bachmann and Cruz and the stubborn right to push past their hatred of the President for once and allow regular people some ease from their worry and suffering? What kind of individual would try to stop others from geting relief? It just boggles the mind.
While it's true that car insurance is a 'choice'. Meaning that if someone wants to operate a vehicle, they MUST pay insurance, to avoid being drained of their accounts, in the case of an accident involving injury to others doesn't draw from taxpayers' salaries. But, even if drivers, by law, need coverage, the Republican grandstanders would say, it's out of your own pocket, and it doesn't require a working citizen having to pay other drivers with federal taxes.
But driving is a privilege and of course a necessity. A human body (not a car) is left to a variety of uncontrollable forces. We can't know from one day to another whether we might be incapacitated by stroke, injury, cancer, etc. No one has CONTROL over their health issues (yes, people can do preventative things to increase their already healthy bodies), but in some cases, some people, no matter how hard they try (due to hereditary) just have hard luck with staying healthy. It's a fact of life.
Why can't these Repubs just realize that a healthy nation is a productive nation, and a nation with citizens with peace of mind is a much more content nation. Given the problems the world faces today, the economy, more and more mentally afflicted people, etc., one would think they'd want to contribute to the betterment of the people, rather than take away a vital stress remover. Wouldn't the few dollars extra from their paycheques be worth it?
"What is so harmful in that?"
DeleteThe inevitable success of the ACA is a victory for the President.
And that simply CANNOT be allowed to happen.
LOL!
ReplyDeletehttp://obamadiary.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/138413_600.jpg?w=655
And that elephant cannot be turned down in the future because of pre-existing conditions!
Delete...But we were lucky: we had jobs that gave us health care. So twelve years ago, when our baby daughter Sasha woke up sick one night, I didn't think twice about taking her to the pediatrician in the morning, because I knew our insurance would cover the cost of that visit. And thank God I did, because our doctor took one look at her and sent us straight to the emergency room, worried that Sasha might have meningitis — a diagnosis that was later confirmed at the hospital.
ReplyDeleteDuring the three long days Sasha spent in the hospital, our only worry was about our baby girl's health. The care she received probably cost thousands of dollars, but we didn't spend a single minute worrying about money because we knew our insurance plan would cover the bills.
Every mother in this country deserves this kind of security for herself and for her family — and more than anything else, that's really what the new health care law is all about.
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/michelle-obama--what-every-mother-in-this-country-deserves-203258232.html
Sarah Palin finally got her death panels — a direct blow from the Republican House. In shutting down the government, leaving 800,000 people without a paycheck and draining the economy of $300 million a day, the Party of Madness also took away last-chance cancer trials for children at the National Institutes of Health.
ReplyDeleteAnd now that the pain that was dismissed as a trifle on Monday, a “slimdown” according to the chuckleheads at Fox News, is revealed as tragic by mid-week, the very radicals who caused the havoc are trying to say it’s not their fault.
It’s too late. They flunked hostage-taking. About 30 or so Republicans in the House, bunkered in gerrymandered districts while breathing the oxygen of delusion, are now part of a cast of miscreants who have stood firmly on the wrong side of history. The headline, today and 50 years from now, will be the same: Republicans closed the government to keep millions of their fellow Americans from getting affordable health care.
They are not righteous rebels or principled provocateurs. They are not constitutionalists, using the ruling framework built by the founders. Just the opposite: they are a militant fringe of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government trying to nullify an established law by extortion. This is not the design of the Constitution.
Nor are they Martin Luther King Jr., or Rosa Parks or Winston Churchill — preposterous comparisons made on the floor of Congress by those whose only real fight is with progress.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/wrong-side-of-history/?smid=tw-share
I have health care through my hubby's Premara Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Our premiums are 1/3 of our combined pay. We are healthy, don't smoke, no "pre-existing" conditions. And our coverage has a huge deductible and isn't complete by any means. I am wondering if we should drop Premara for another plan, or just call them and ask if they plan on becoming more competitive in the market now and can offer us a better plan? Any one have any thoughts on this?
ReplyDeleteAt the popular Alabama blog the overwhelming majority of commentors still obviously hate Obama and are sadly misinformed. It figures.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.al.com/montgomery/2013/10/small_business_owner_in_montgo.html
He sounds like a reasonably intelligent person until I read his "beer and band aid" remedy for saving money on health care. I don't know if anyone ever had the experience of being led into that small, windowless room lit with buzzing fluorescent bulbs with sparse furniture tucked in a corner or under stairs in a waiting room, waiting for a doctor to "explain the results" of a biopsy or other test.
ReplyDeleteI have, and the news was crushing. Had I not had a decent health insurance plan through work, I'd be raising my family in a cardboard box under a bridge, hopefully near dumpsters and running water. Or worse, six feet under and not around to see my family grow.
This guy is 31 years old, he's not a teen who thinks they're invincible. I hope other people who are against the ACA are as inquisitive and able to see the benefits this law offers to everyone far outweigh what was in place before.
If you've got your health, you've got everything.
I've always felt that President Obama "gets it" because he remembers what it was like to be poor, what being refused coverage meant for his mother. People who were born rich, tend to sometimes not feel connected in that way, they're insulated from other's misery and pain.