President Donald Trump held a listening session on Monday to hear from citizens who are “victims of Obamacare.”
The president opened the session thanking the participants for sharing their stories about the “very, very failed and failing Obamacare law.”
The president then spoke of the American Health Care Act that is intended to replace the failing Affordable Care Act.
“W1e’re going to be working to unleash the power of the private marketplace to let insurers come in and compete for your business and you’ll see rates go down, down, down and you’ll see plans go up, up, up. You’ll have a lot of choices. You’ll have plans that nobody is even thinking of today.”
Vice President Pence, HHS Secretary Price and the Director of the White House National Economic Council Gary Cohn joined the president as he heard stories of financial and personal pain due to Obamacare.
Mrs. Carrie Couey of Colorado said her rates are three times higher than when Obamacare began and that has hurt her family’s cattle ranching business.
“We can’t afford our equipment if were paying these rates year after year after year,” exclaimed Couey and added, “Our food source is in jeopardy because of this health care law.”
Brittany Ivey of Georgia said she left a full-time job in 2009 to raise her two children and at that time a family plan for four cost them $650 per month but by 2015, it had gone up 102 percent.
She told the president that her husband’s employer dropped the family from coverage so she looked for a new job but couldn’t find one that offered insurance. At that point, the family got Obamacare.
“We believed the sales pitch that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” Brittany said. “Even though we were going to have to pay $1,300 a month for Obamacare, we thought wed still be ok with our doctors. But she said doctors would not accept the coverage. We paid them $8,000 in five months and were never able to use it. It has almost put our family in financial ruin.”
Kim Sertich of Arizona said her premium last year was $365 a month and it had risen to $809 a month this year, with a deductible of $6,800.
“It just didn’t seem like a good use of my money,” Kim said. The terrible math caused her to opt out and enter into a faith-based program.
Gina Sell of Wisconsin said, “We could not afford a premium of $1,200 per month and a deductible that didn’t cover anything.”
Last week she sent her daughter to school for three days straight with a fever because she couldn’t pay for a trip to the doctor that she would have had to pay out-of-pocket.
Vice President Pence remarked about the devastating stories.
“This is about real people, about real patients,” he said. “I am really excited to help install a replacement.”
