Op-ed: 

ObamaCare Gets Personal
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on americanpbn.com

ObamaCare…the nightmare that hangs over us all. Promises made, promises not kept…escalating premiums and services not rendered. And we all have heard stories of people losing insurance they were happy with while men are now covered for pregnancy and women can get prostrate exams at no cost. Now add in the fact that cancer patients are being denied much needed chemo and radiation treatment, heart attack patients are mired down in paperwork as they sit in waiting rooms overrun with illegals who get better and faster treatment than they do, and you just know that America’s health care system has been dealt a devastating blow.

But the reality for many of us is that until this monstrosity affects someone you personally know it becomes someone else’s problem…not yours. So now let me tell you a story about someone many of us know, but before I reveal his name it must be understood that his story is indeed ‘everyman’s’ story now that ObamaCare is the law of the land.

Let’s start by imagining a medical emergency hitting you out of the blue…no warning whatsoever…as you go to bed feeling fine and a few hours later you wake up in agonizing, blood curdling pain. Nothing you do relieves the pain…a pain that increases with each breath you take. Finally an ambulance is called and you are transported to your local hospital where you are loaded with pain killing drugs…which barely touch your pain…while the doctors run various ‘basic’ tests in an effort to determine the cause of your pain. Now add in that the pain is so bad that your blood pressure soars to such heights that you are on the verge of stroking out, but low and behold in walks the bearer of paperwork which must be filled out before treatment can be started...after all the hospital must be assured that a withering in agony patient…a legal citizen of these United States…has insurance and that they will be paid.

And so with this particular patient being in the ObamaCare system…something he never wanted or intended to be in but which circumstances forced him into…the paper work nightmare begins and continues unabated to this day as the hospital is threatening to sue for monies owed...as the patient and his wife are being evicted from their home because they cannot pay their rent due to the fact that hospital creditors incessantly hound them for the monies owed. But wait…this patient like I said has ObamaCare so why the hounding…why the threats to sue…why isn’t his ObamaCare coverage paying out what they should be paying…and why is this family facing likely bankruptcy…why… simply because ObamaCare does not work as one hand has no idea what the other hand is doing.

And when you add into the ObamaCare mix IRS involvement…and yes…the IRS plays a very large part in ObamaCare…you just know you are in trouble if you dare to get sick.

People pay their ObamaCare premiums month after month…like this patient did…into a system riddled with so many flaws that when said insurance is needed and should kick-in it simply doesn’t. And with it not kicking in comes a multitude of excuses all coming from the ObamaCare end.

Excuses from the ObamaCare end what with it’s web sites that still do not work…from telephone operators who do not know answers to simple questions and who cannot be understood as their English…if they even speak it…is fractured at best. And for this man that many of us know…whose name I will shortly reveal…a man in so much pain he thought he was dying…and even begged to do so as he could not take much more…while he had a diagnosis made and treatment rendered complications set in that within a few months led him into emergency surgery…emergency surgery that was a success yet emergency surgery that came with a hefty price tag and mountains of paperwork from an insurance company that had no intention of following through with the insurance he paid for.

Insurance he paid for starting in March 2015 but by early April of the same year he was told that he and his wife’s policy had been cancelled due to a lack of payment. But payment had most assuredly been made…and made on time in fact…but ObamaCare had failed to send their subsidy to their insurance carrier, Coventry.

And after much back and forth Coventry reinstated their insurance policy but now instead of being billed for one policy…the one and only policy he had originally signed them up for…they were being billed for two policies. And so once again it was bantering back and forth with Coventry, who while they said they understood that they needed and had signed up for only one policy, they now in their misguided wisdom cancelled both policies.

Finally getting reinstated again in early May 2015, by the end of May it was back to arguing with Coventry because they were now informed again that their policy been cancelled due to a lack of payments they were actually making...and making on time…exactly as had happened a few months prior and with the same excuse that ObamaCare wasn’t paying the subsidy to Coventry as they were supposed to.

And downhill it goes from here when in July 2015, the wife of he who many of us know lost her job leaving this family with no income at all for a bit of time until she found another job. Now fast forward to January 2016 when the man many of us know…when The National Patriot’s and my Right Side Patriots partner and friend Craig Andresen and his wife Susan...were supposed to get their much needed 1095 forms so they could file their taxes...but as expected with the monstrosity known as ObamaCare, they did not receive the much needed forms.

And so the phone bantering took on a new dimension as they now were battling both their carrier Coventry and once again the clueless at ObamaCare at the same time. Finally they were told they would have in their possession the needed 1095 forms in no later than 30 days, but true to ObamaCare’s ineptitude, 30 days came and went and no forms appeared. And so calls…many calls…were again placed and this time both Craig and Susan were told they could neither find nor send them the much needed forms as they were not…according to their records…covered under ObamaCare. After much hair-pulling and yelling it was suddenly discovered that they were indeed covered and again were told it would be another 30 days until they received said forms.

Flash forward and its 30 days later and only about half the needed 1095 forms had arrived. And again Susan called Coventry where they transferred her to the so-called “network” who informed her that for several months they hadn’t been covered and who then transferred her back to Coventry, who got back to her a week or so later to tell her that they had found the rest of the 1095 forms but that it would take yet another 30 days to get them delivered.

Craig and Susan were now faced with a total of 90 days of waiting with little to no results, and were forced to file for an extension on their taxes, delaying the $2000+ they would have received in a refund…$2000+ they desperately needed to not only pay their back rent but to keep the hospital hounds at bay who were ‘barking’ and demanding their monies due as Coventry…as ObamaCare…was not reimbursing them for services rendered.

Finally, early last month Craig received one more of the much needed 1095 forms, but at this point in time is still missing two critical parts so once again Coventry was called and once again he and Susan were given the same runaround and were transferred back and forth and forth again until finally...at the middle of this June...they received one of the still missing two 1095 forms but were still unable to file their taxes as one form was still missing, and very little monies were coming in as Susan’s job is based on commissions only, with the result being that their rent is now four months overdue, and the hospital still wants...still demands… payment be made now.

It was at this point that an independent insurance agent...not with Coventry...did manage to get the missing numbers needed and a promise that the last of the 1095 forms would be mailed to Crag post-haste. Happily they were, and Craig and Susan filed their long overdue taxes just a week or so ago.

But even that little bit of happiness was short-lived…and here is where you can see Craig as ‘everyman’…’everyman’ caught between a rock and a hard place due to no fault of their own. Because of the runarounds received by both ObamaCare and Coventry…because of all the ‘you are covered’...no ‘you are not covered’...oh, and by the way because we made a major boo-boo we cancelled both of your policies when you actually had only one policy…and then reinstated you and then undid so...Craig and Susan continued to face hospitals and clinics suing them for payments that their ‘wonderful’ ObamaCare insurance was supposed to be making but wasn’t.

Now having to take out a loan to cover their out-of-pocket expenses to keep the attorneys at bay and with Susan’s commission-only job paying only enough to keep up their payments on the loan...there was literally no monies left to pay household bills, to buy food except for the basics, or to pay the rent. This forced Susan to ‘make a deal’ with their landlords to pay the back rent as soon as they got their tax return, and with their landlords being the parents of a long-time friend…and extremely wealthy to boot…told Susan it was no problem as they understood the direness of the situation.

Well guess what…they lied.

And it all boils down to this…had Craig and Susan gotten their 1095 forms on time they would have filed ahead of the tax deadline and had their $2000+ tax return by mid-April of this year...thus paying in-full the back rent they owed. And while the landlords knew the intricate details of the their situation…while they had given Susan both their word and reassurance that they would wait until the tax return came in no matter how long it took…they instead, via their attorney, sent an eviction notice over to Craig and Susan just three days before they were finally able to file their taxes just a week or so ago…giving them but one month to get out or else…and we all know what that legalize of ‘or else’ means.

So now with but one month to get out and with literally no money to move anywhere, my dear friends Craig and Susan Andresen will be homeless come August 1st and will be forced to live in one of their two old…decades old…cars, and it’s all do to the ineptitude of the monstrosity known as ObamaCare and their not paying on hospital bills Craig was indeed covered for, coupled with friends who turned out to be anything but friends.  And to make this situation even more heartbreaking is that once they are homeless Craig and Susan will be forced to give up their three pets…Bella the dog and Merlot and Mallory the cats…all of whom they have had since they were little. These are their ‘children’ so to speak and this will be like a knife through their hearts.

So what is there left for them to do…what would ‘everyman’ do in a situation such as this…they look to their true friends for help and in this case it’s money that is needed…money not to splurge on fluff…but money needed just to survive, to find a small place to live, to keep their family intact, and to continue their fight to get ObamaCare to pay the ever-mounting hospital bills.

And to that affect my dear friends Craig and Susan had to humble themselves and allow me to tell you their story… for their story could be any one of our story if one has ObamaCare as their insurance. And so a ‘GoFundMe’ account…here is the link to it: https://www.gofundme.com/Craig-Andresen…has been set up in their name and they ask all their fb friends, National Patriot followers, and followers of both Craig and my Right Side Patriots radio show, to please if you can help them get back on their feet by donating whatever amount you deem possible as their situation is indeed desperate with an August 1st eviction date being just a few weeks away.

In this day and age of ObamaCare so many of us could be Craig and Susan Andresen…we need to help each other out in these most difficult of times…it’s just the right thing to do. Here’s the ‘GoFundMe’ account link again: https://www.gofundme.com/Craig-Andresen for all who wish to donate.