During her State of the Union rebuttal Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) shared the story of a local Spokane woman who’s monthly health insurance premium went up by $700, allegedly because of Obamacare.
That story didn’t quite pass the smell test, and now we know for certain that it’s a lie.
From the Los Angeles Times
Grenier told the newspaper that she wrote Rodgers after her insurance company informed her that her $552-a-month catastrophic health plan would not be offered in 2014. It offered her an alternative plan complying with the ACA at $1,052 a month.
But that sounds like her insurer trying to steer her to an overpriced option. A compliant plan meeting the Affordable Care Act’s coverage mandates actually is available from Washington’s insurance exchange for much less — and with a deductible far lower than the $10,000 she was paying under the old plan and broader coverage, though lacking a provision for four free doctor visits a year provided by her old plan.
Grenier said she had flatly refused to even investigate her options on the exchange. “I wouldn’t go on that Obama website at all,” she said. “We liked our old plan. It worked for us, but they can’t offer it anymore.”
Bette Grenier and her husband decided to go without coverage because there’s no way she’ll go on “that Obama website” even though “that Obama website” would save her hundreds of dollars.
I can’t say I have a whole lot of sympathy for someone who complains after refusing to go on “that Obama website” to save themselves.
According to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, one of Grenier’s friends obtained an insurance plan on “that Obama website” for a mere $129 per month, but she refused to use it herself.
Her former insurer is also partly to blame for attempting to steer her into a far more expensive option, but refusing to even look at your options requires a level of stubbornness, ignorance, and racism I cannot explain.