As Barack Obama and some GOP lawmakers argue over the debt ceiling and the Affordable Care Act, Yahoo asked Americans how the battle in Washington is affecting them. Here's one perspective.
COMMENTARY | For months upon months, I've watched the calendar wind toward October. I've visited the Illinois site counting down to the start of open enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, on Oct. 1, waiting for the chance to get actual value in exchange for my health insurance premiums.
And now Congress wants to tell me, "Not so fast."
Pushing an agenda that doesn't benefit voters, some congressional Republicans insist on President Obama delaying or repealing the ACA in order to avoid a government shutdown. To get their way, those members of the GOP appear willing to hold their breath until the rest of us turn blue.
It's a temper tantrum of economic extortion, and we will pay the price. In 2013, insurers were second only to the pharmaceutical industry in lobbying dollars spent, at nearly $78 million. And, reports OpenSecret, most of that money went to Republicans. For health services/HMOs, the percentage of funds going to Republicans was even greater this year. In a couple of past years, though, Democrats received more money, probably with the hope to have greater control over what ended up in the ACA.
To an outsider, it looks like industries can pay members of Congress a whole lot of money to make sure they can continue to charge constituents a whole lot of money without the constraint of having to provide services in exchange for premiums. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation website rate calculator, I stand to save about 40 percent on my premiums under an ACA plan, and that doesn't even include the cost-sharing benefits, which will further reduce my self-employed health expenses. With my premiums currently at $444 per month, without maternity coverage, and no option of an employer plan, the likely ACA savings are substantial.
Surreally, the Harvard study that claimed that public debt slows economic growth -- in essence, the supposed "basis" for sequestration -- was debunked earlier this year. That shatters any illusion Congress will hold the government hostage for our own good.
So why hold it hostage? Could it possibly be that Congress is more concerned with those donations from lobbying groups than the health and welfare of their own voters?
For the fear of sounding overly simplistic: well, duh.
It doesn't seem to matter what the Constitution requires. It doesn't seem to matter that "Senator" and "Congressman" carry with them the humble title of "public servant." It doesn't seem to matter that for me, afraid to use the insurance I pay so much for fear I'll be dropped, charged more because of my gender, with my premiums and deductibles sneaking ever upward, the ACA means security and freedom.
Nope. In a government supposedly formed by the people and for the people, the people themselves don't matter. Forget the world's illnesses; that's what's really sickening.
Isa-Lee Wolf lives in Chicago.
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