Impending blindness makes man who rejected Obamacare demand it
A 49-year-old man in South Carolina who declined to enroll in the Affordable Care Act because he has always eschewed insurance in favor of paying his medical bills himself now needs an expensive eye surgery that he can't afford. His doctor says he'll go blind without it.
Despite his deliberate decision to refuse Obamacare when he had the opportunity -- the mandate -- Luis Lang tells The Charlotte Observer that he assumed help would be available to him when he needed it. His diminishing eyesight has left him unable to work. His inability to work makes him ineligible for a federal subsidy to purchase private insurance. And his state's opposition to the Affordable Care Act means Medicaid was not expanded, so that's not an option either.
Guess who he and his wife blame for his predicament. President Barack Obama, of course, and the Democrats who passed a bill that doesn't allow conscientious objectors to just jump into the Affordable Act when their medical bills overwhelm them. The bill Obama and the Democrats came up with is too complex, too confusing, the Langs say, and it's causing the 49-year-old to suffer.
Conceptually, the Affordable Care Act is quite simple. Everybody buys health insurance or pays a penalty for his or her refusal to do so. People who buy in get treated when they get sick. People who don't buy in and who live in states like Louisiana that are too Obamaphobic to help its folks, well, they get to put their dedication to self reliance to the test. Back when this was a Republican issue -- i.e, back when then Gov. Mitt Romney was pushing for its implementation in Massachusetts -- the emphasis was that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The idea of mandated health insurance was based on the conservative notion that people who have the resources and should have had the foresight to buy medical insurance shouldn't expect treatment after they get sick.
"
My husband) should be at the front of the line, because he doesn't work and because he has medical issues," Mary Lang said. "We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act."
Read more: http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2015/05/blindness_obamacare.html
[font color=green]Please read the rest of the article and stay classy with the comments.[/font]
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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)
Still, we shouldn't be amused by the irony of the man's health problems. Some people just can't figure things out though.
"I hate socialism, but now that I need it, give it to me, or you are doing me wrong!"
So much that is wrong about America is encapsulated in the man's complaint.
Incredible lack of self-awareness, and an amazing feeling of entitlement from someone who
opposed the policy in the 1st place.
If a person could DIE from hypocrisy, I swear, 50-million Americans (at least)
would drop-dead immediately.
Another 50-million would be on life-support.
Sorry, that's about as classy as I can be with stories like this one. And believe me, I toned it waaaayyyyy down.
What is so complicated about health insurance? It seems pretty simple to me: get it, and you get your medical care covered; don't get it, and live with the consequences...blindness. Blaming Obama for this is simply ridiculous. He should be blaming the morons in the Republican party who refuse to consider single-payer an option.
This feels like all of those other idiots who demand that we "keep the government out my Medicare!"
