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LETTERS / The Affordable Care Act, NC Medicaid Policy, and Republican Ideology

Dear Editor,

The Republicans in general, and the Tea Party extremists specifically, are desperately afraid of the ACA, also called Obamacare.  Healthcare insurance that working, poor people can afford!  That’s insane–is their attitude.  And I am up against this selfish attitude right now in a very personal way.  I applied at Healthcare.gov and was told my income level was too low and I should be covered by the medicaid expansion, that is part of the Affordable Care Act.  So the website’s software doesn’t know a lot of Republican States–unlike Arizona and Ohio–are just too stupid or ideological to accept free federal funds to expand Medicaid and provide healthcare for the working poor.

Governor Pat McCrory and his legislature, with this refusal of the Medicaid expansion, is making me jump through hoops to get healthcare.  I have to apply for medicaid, get turned down because I’m not 65, just to get a refusal notification, and use this document to file an appeal at healthcare.gov.  I’ll have to pay 5% of my income for the premium of a BCBS silver policy but its better than reliance on the indignity of a Watauga County Charity Program.     

So, all all of us who pay Federal Taxes can thank the Republicans in Raleigh for turning down a free handout meant to help the cashier at our Walmat, the sales associate at a supermarket or pharmacy, or a night audit at one of Boone’s hotels.   

Thanks very much Republicans, for nothing!

Robert Chassanoff