I was on a flight back home from Boston a few weeks ago, and as I and my fellow travelers were preparing to extricate ourselves from our oh so comfortable coach seats, I struck up small talk with a nice woman who had been unfortunate enough to spend the last two hours in the center seat next to me.
Usual stuff: “Traveling on business or fun?” “So, you’re just connecting through our fine airport?” “Meeting a friend in Charleston? You’ll have fun, but you have to visit Savannah.” She shared that she was a new business woman with some kind of wine business. “Cool”, I thought, “an entrepreneur.”
Kind of out of the blue, this middle-aged woman (who lives in Boston) says something about how she thinks that once Obamacare is implemented most people will like it.
Well, I did not recall saying anything political, but maybe it was something that I was reading, or maybe I was soap-boxing in my sleep. Anyway, with the door so gracefully kicked open, I walked in.
Before I could even ask the first question, the woman shares that she did have to wait almost three months to see her new doctor, but that was not so bad.
Okay … I ask about premiums and deductibles; I assume that both are high. Oh, no, it costs her nothing. At this moment I have what we like to call an ah-ha moment.
I confirm my conclusion, her new business is showing no profit, so per her tax returns she is in “poverty” and qualifies for Medicaid. And, her stated thought was that such “freedom” to strike out without worrying about health insurance was one of the best reasons for such a plan as RomneyCare.
Probably fortunately, our time to rise up and head down the aisles to the open spaces of Terminal B had arrived, so it was “Good luck. Have fun in Charleston. Goodbye.”
Is it possible that this woman who has enough intelligence (ostensibly) to start a business is not aware who is paying for her “free” healthcare? I guess that I could assume that she does know.
Was Medicaid really designed to be used by such people? Wasn’t the reason for that program to help those who could not help themselves? When the reason for government provided (and taxpayer funded) healthcare is to allow people to strike out and try something new, is it really aid?
And I can’t get over her dismissing the three-month wait to see her doctor as not so bad, but I guess you get what (others) pay for.
Never mind that the cost of RomneyCare is now eating over 40 cents of every dollar in the state budget and healthcare in Massachusetts is, if not the most expensive in the country, certainly in the top three. And the response from the Democrats in that State House? Medicaid for all, otherwise known as single payer. And so it goes, and so it will go with Obamacare.
I do wish good luck to this stranger and her business. Hopefully, she will become successful enough to begin paying her own way and of course, for all of those other “entrepreneurs.” If she does not get it now, certainly she will then.
Unfortunately, if Massachusetts moves to single payer, the odds of her business success are reduced due to the increased tax burden, but maybe she is okay with the American Dream Lite. Are you?
Alan Felts
Peachtree City, Ga.
