ObamaCare is an ObamaScam by the reckoning of a self-employed Brooklyn consultant who says her insurance bill soared by $250 a month when she was forced into the new national health-coverage program.
Now she’s complaining to anyone who’ll listen
“The president of the United States promised me repeatedly that if I liked my plan, I could keep it. End of story. This was a lie, and I will never for forgive him or anyone who cooperates with him for this egregious deception,” said Heather Cross, a 45-year-old widow from Williamburg.
Cross said she was doing just fine with insurance bought under a “sole proprietor plan” that allowed self-employed individuals to pool for coverage with small businesses, a policy unique to New York.
She said she was paying $568 a month.
Now it’s gone.
“Your current sole proprietor plan from Oxford Health Insurance Inc. will no longer be available,” Howard Margolies, Oxford’s vice president of small business in New York, wrote in an Oct. 1 “withdrawal notice” to Cross.
Under ObamaCare, Margolies said, self-employed individuals are not considered “employees,” and the medical plan currently offered her is no longer considered a “group health plan.”
“These changes are required by federal health reform,” Cross said.
Instead, Cross has to choose from among four plans — Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze — that cater to individuals as required under ObamaCare.
She compared her current coverage and costs with what Oxford was offering in the new individual plans. What she found made her sick.
The cost of the comparable Gold plan: $817.98 monthly — or $250 more than what she pays now.
And then she blew her top.
“It’s going to be more expensive, and it’s going to hurt me financially,” said Cross, a former teacher who now tutors students and helps schools devise lesson plans.
Since she makes about $90,000, she is not eligible for a federal subsidy.
During the health-care debate in 2009, President Obama, in a speech to the American Medical Association, promised, “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”
“No one will take it away, no matter what,” he declared.
The ObamaCare Web site, healthcare.gov, confirms that self-employed workers like Cross must shop for coverage in the individual marketplace. If she doesn’t like what Oxford is offering, she can look to find cheaper coverage elsewhere.
“Starting in 2014, you may qualify to get lower costs on your monthly premiums when you buy private health insurance in the marketplace,” the government Web site says.
Insurance officials said the problem with ObamaCare is that supporters — including the president — overpromised and oversold reform by making it seem that everyone would benefit.
“We have said all along there would be winners and losers among the cross section of New Yorkers,” said Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association.
And Obama’s words are coming back to haunt him.
“There are few people who will be able to keep the policy they had and liked,” she said.
Oxford declined to comment beyond the letter sent to Cross.