Blogger County Carrie took to her blog on Valentine’s Day to share how much she loves her husband of 14 years. But everything is changing now that Obamacare is law.
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“Now, recent developments have brought us now to the brink of divorce… well as far as the state is concerned,” she writes on her blog CountyCarrie.com.
County Carrie and her husband fall in “under insured,” middle-class income bracket. Thanks to the regulations from the Affordable Care Act, their insurance was cancelled. Their new options now, however, are beyond what they can afford.
Their current plan is $375-a-month and has a $11,500 deductible, with one check up per year, per family member. Their plan does not include maternity care, vision or dental, pharmacy, none of which they need. After the deductible, the insurance pays 100 percent.
She shares,
Last year we paid out about $9,000 dollars in doctor visits, lab tests, physical therapy, multiple injections, MRI scan, and 2 x-rays. I was told in October that I should have surgery and seeing that we had already spent so much money this calendar year we decided to wait to have the surgery for the next year so we could meet our deductible at the beginning of the year.
Sadly, the decision to delay the surgery was rather fortuitous, as their policy was cancelled with an offer for a different one, which covered far less than the family’s needs.
12,000 family deductible with one well check up per family member. Maternity care coverage (again we do not have the ability to use this) no pharmacy, no vision or dental, no co-pays because we must meet the deductible first. After we meet the 12,000 deductible insurance will kick in but it will now only pay 50% of our old policy.
All that coverage will now be provided at “the bargain price of just under $1,000 per month. Woohoo!” she writes. “Let’s recap, We will pay well over double for half of the coverage.”
“However we are a part of the upper middle class and we can ‘afford to pay a little more’,” she says. “I take great offense at that statement from all of those who have uttered them especially because they are exempt from this mandate. We are forced to decide which is more important, our children’s education or a piss poor excuse of mandatory health insurance.”
Thanks to mandatory health insurance a divorce now appears to be the best financial option for County Carrie’s family.
She writes,
If I divorce him uncontested with full custody of our girls then it would move quick through the system. I would establish a new residence by “living” with a family member or by getting a cheap apartment. I could then receive all of these wonderful government benefits because I personally make less than 19,530 per year. I would be able to get free health care for me and my girls, food assistance, money to pay for their private education, and I would get a heap of money back in taxes because I am under the poverty guideline and I’m the sole provider of our kids. I would get the surgery that I need and pay almost nothing for it. My husband would get a much cheaper health insurance plan because he is young and healthy.
“For all of those who lobbied for this mandate, did you once stop to think of all of the backlash that it would create?”
CNS News reported last year that Obamacare actually creates a $7,200 divorce incentive.
“Get divorced (or avoid getting married, if you live together), and you save $7,230 per year if you are a fairly typical 40-year-old couple with kids,” CNS reported.
“Historically, the effect of marriage penalties has been most profound for working-class people, who are punished severely for getting married by the welfare state,” they go on to point out.
“They’ve been successful in creating a system that gives free money to those who have decided to live outside of the governmental bond of marriage,” County Carrie argues.
“I didn’t get married in the eyes of the state of Indiana, I got married as a commitment to my husband and in the eyes of God as we view it,” she writes, adding that “till death do us part” meant a firm commitment that didn’t rely on tax paperwork. Sadly, the system has created a incentive for the couple to get divorced.
“However the government decides to rule our lives, I still know one thing, Daniel and I’s love and marriage 14 years later has never been better,” she concludes.