I, like many other responsible insured Americans, received a formal letter from my insurance company thanking me for my many years of timely payments (and good health) while kindly informing me that I would no longer have coverage starting in as litte as 3 months.
I'll be honest - I'm not quite sure WHAT to think about this. In one sense, I'm upset on sheer principle. After all, I seem to remember my president promising on multiple occations that that "people who liked their insurance plans can keep them." Well, I liked my plan - alot. So did my doctors and pediatriatians.
On the other hand, if I end up saving money with a government-sposored insurance plan and some big insurance company happens to take a hit in the process - wonderful! But that has not taken place yet. Thus, I am left with a bitter my-girlfriend-just-dumped-me sort of feeling in the pit of my stomach.
So now I have to find that plan and that happiness, myself! Only 186k or so people have signed up for insurance in the first month, with fewer than 27,000 of them going through the federal healthcare.gov site, which is handling enrollment for 36 states (source). This is mostly due to the horrible state of affairs on the web portal used for signing up for insurance. Unfortunatly, I STILL can't look to see if I will be a happy person or a very dissappointed person.
I wish that Obama had thought this through a bit more. For being the first technilogically-savvy president - YouTuve addresses, email campaigns, Twitter, etc - one would be led to believe that he would have had this well in hand.
Obama is quoted as saying, "We fumbled the roll out on this health care law." Yeah, I'd say so. And frankly, I don't blame Republicans for picking it up and running the other way with it. Until I can (a) feel comfortable that I am going to be insured by January 1st; (b) have said healthcare be affordable; (c) have said healthcare be as GOOD as mine - or at least comparable; and (d) have the whole process vastly improve, then my attitude will remain somewhat bitter and my vote for Obama with a little less excited behind it.
Hopefully, the year extension that he is suggesting will not only apply to my health insurance provider, but also be approved by the state commissioners. I'd love a little time to decide on the best health care option for me, my wife, and my two girls. As I understand it, I have until December 15th to be signed up and paid up with a healthcare selection in order to not have a gap in my coverate. That is, in order for the government-sponsored healthcare to pick up on January 1st - the day that my current health provider is leaving me for, no doubt, some more healthy candidate.
Obama said the website healthcare.gov will see "marked and noticeable" improvement. I can only hope that is the case. Until then, I will keep refreshing my browser and crossing my fingers.
