Time for the Affordable Care Act to spread it's wings and...

I actually have a lot I want to write about, but at the moment I've got "Obamacare" (the law actually called the Affordable Care Act) on the brain. And it seems I'm far from the only American in that position.

I am fine with paying taxes for healthcare - in fact, I would much prefer a single-payer system (Medicare for All). What I take exception to is being forced into lining the pockets of CEOs in the health insurance industry by a government which is supposed to be representing me. My tax dollars are already spent when I get my paycheque, but to be told after the fact that I have to use what used to be a portion of my already meager disposable income in order to purchase a defective product (and health insurance remains as such no matter how many regulations are placed on it so long as it is controlled by the profit motives of the private sector) is galling.

When I lost my job of seven years back in 2011, I got six months of health insurance as part of my severance package. After that I went without because there was no way I could absorb the hit of a $600/month COBRA payment. I am employed again, but still going without because the health insurance plan offered is horrible: it would eat up nearly 25% of my (reduced) income, not cover my daughters nor their mother and comes with hefty co-pays and fees just for taking "advantage" of the "coverage."

Since going live this week, I've been trying to give Obamacare (really, national Romneycare, but let's not stop Democrats and self-professed liberals from cheering on this republican idea passed by a "Democratic" president and House) a chance. Visits to healthcare.gov have met with error messages on the rare instances that I've not been stopped at the landing page which unhelpfully informs me that I need to stay there because I'm in some invisible queue.

With the definitive ACA site not giving me any answers, I've tried to glean what to expect in trying to square myself with this law. I don't want to end up fined and still be sans health coverage (especially since it is not clear whether or not those fines will be a flat fee or multiplied by the number of months one has neglected to pay the insurance man). The Kaiser Family Foundation's Subsidy Calculator estimates coverage for my family will cost $80 per month based on total household income (I work 40 hours per week, my partner 16). Not great, but could be worse, I suppose. Where it does get worse is if my partner decided to start working full time. In addition to the expense of putting our children in daycare when we are both at work, our household premium (according to KFF) would jump to $300/month. We make the same amount of hourly income. How is it that a 43% increase in income causes a 375% increase in one's insurance premium?

Maybe the offerings once I get into healthcare.gov will be better. I certainly hope they are. However, I remain extremely skeptical about the whole messy affair.

As for the teabaggers who have taken over the republican party and shut down the government in a childish attempt to kill a law they don't like: fuck 'em. You don't mix issues and destroy the economy and people's lives over petty ideology...unless you have a seething hatred for Democracy.