“But it’s still sad, because they’re also a human being.”
Real human beings don’t suck money out of other people to pay for their health care and Obamaphones.
I have no sympathy for these vampires. Let them choke on the crap sandwich 0bama, Pelosi, and Reid gave them!
I think you are misunderstanding what this means for many people who are defiantly “real human beings”. Not all of them are trying to “suck money out of other people” nor do they have “Obamaphones” nor are all of them “vampires”.
There are people who do not have health insurance through an employer because they fall below 30 hours per week and employer insurance is not provided or they have employer provided insurance but are looking to get it cheaper, with or without a government subsidy through the exchanges, or those who fall just below, those that do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid or those who have private insurance, like many of the self employed who are just now learning that their prior insurance coverage is about to be cancelled completely or that their coverage is about to double or triple or more in cost and with less coverage or with more coverage than they need or want at renewal, making it completely unaffordable for them.
Due to the coverage mandates and the penalties levied for not having any insurance, this is forcing many of the above mentioned persons to seek coverage via Healthcare.gov or if available, through one of the state run exchanges.
Not all of these people want, nor will they even qualify for a subsidy, they just need to get some sort of approved coverage in order to not pay the penalty.
But the way it works is that they have to provide all sorts of personal and financial information in order to just apply and get a quote, forcing them to apply for a subsidy whether they want one or will even qualify for one, even before even applying for coverage or finding out about the costs (if they can even get to that point in the system).
My brother and SIL are in that group.
My brother is self employed, an independent contractor working for several property insurance companies doing property insurance inspections for which he is paid a flat fee per inspection plus mileage expenses. Some weeks he has a lot of inspections, some weeks, none. He’s tried to find a full time job with full heath care benefits but with his back problem and recent back surgery and at his age (63), he’s limited and most prospective employers will not even give him the time of day due to his age and physical limitations. My SIL is also about the same age (64) but has very bad arthritis and is starting to show signs of early Alzheimer's and has been unemployed for over the last 4 years, except for the occasional seasonal and temporary part time jobs. They both have nearly a year to go before qualifying for Medicare and being proud and very conservative and self reliant people, they do not want to file for government disability as long as they are able to support themselves no matter how meager that is.
My brother makes just enough to cover their day to day expenses; house payment, utilities, car insurance, taxes, food, etc. but without very much if anything left over. They are just scraping by. My brother had an affordable, very basic “catastrophic” private health plan at about $100 per month, but he just received a notice that that this plan was being discontinued due to “Obamacare”. They gave him a quote for their “cheapest” coverage, one that would comply with the “Affordable Health Care Act” and it was $600 per month with a $10,000 deductible - they simply can’t afford it. (Although as my brother told me, it does have some features like fully covered birth control (they are way past having to worry about unexpected pregnancies), and yearly mammograms (my SIL had a full mastectomy over ten years ago) and coverage for children up to age 26 (and their youngest child is nearly 40) so they are being forced to pay for coverage they do not need.
From what my brother and SIL researched, they probably make just barely above the yearly income that would qualify them for a subsidy. And they do not even want a subsidy but in order to even apply, they have to apply for the subsidy and provide all sorts of personal financial information even if they don’t want it or will qualify for it.
They figured out for at least for the first year, they are probably better off taking their chances and going without any insurance and paying the penalty and hoping they don’t have to go to the doctors or the hospital for the next year or so before they both qualify for Medicare. And they with their ages and health conditions, they are really not looking forward to Medicare.