Yes, in fact there were but in my state -- and I researched this for a relative -- these were completely unaffordable for an unemployed person and many employed.
And as Gallup has shown, there is no “big chunk” of the uninsured eager to sign up. No “big chunk” of any kind is trying to sign up
I didn't say there was. I said a big chunk of those eager to sign up -- whether those eager to sign up are a crowd or a handful -- is composed of people with pre-existing conditions. And that is true.
Furthermore in Washington State as I think you know, we already have well over 60,000 commercial enrollments -- could be north of 90,000 by now if you count those who haven't paid the first month's premium yet (and why would any significant number have paid the premium this early?). That is getting pretty chunky.
It’s not my job to bail out people who never bought health insurance in their life until after they had a pre-existing condition. Those people absolutely should pay more for their insurance because unlike the rest of us, they neglected their responsibility to pay into insurance until after they needed the benefits. You have to pay more now to make up for what you avoided paying in when you were healthy.
If you wait until you’re 80 years old to buy life insurance, it’s going to cost more than someone who started paying in at 40.
For people who were under the poverty line, Medicaid was already available, so why was Obamacare needed? Obamacare was created to get more people on the government dole by expanding eligibility for Medicaid and subsidies to people who were already able to afford insurance and to hike up the costs of insurance to make more people feel they need those subsidies.