Freedom to Travel? Papers [Obamacare], please! - Granite Grok

Freedom to Travel? Papers [Obamacare], please!

As this Obamacare nightmare has been rolled out, it has been very hard to not see how limited coverages have become – doctor access limited, hospital access limited, and choice of the plans themselves have been very limited.  In fact, here in NH, only one insurer has actually been approved (although another one may be entering).  However, they are also limited to geography – while many comparisons have been made between the States, little has been brought up that the costs and the coverage of plans can also be limited to a given county resulting in even lesser coverage.

County level coverage – an unintended consequence (or was it? Or yet another “hemming in” tactic for Sustainable Communities Initiative where one of the desired outcomes is a restriction of travel options)  is the lack the ability to easily move your domicile; move too far and while you might enjoy your new digs, you might not be enjoying your current healthplan.  And then I saw this over at American Thinker (reformatted, emphasis mine):

ObamaCare May Devastate the Real Estate and Travel Industries

Americans are among the most mobile people on earth, but ObamaCare may soon start freezing them in place. Millions are losing their health insurance policies and being forced onto the ObamaCare exchanges, where most plans only provide local medical coverage. As Americans realize they must pay for all non-emergency medical care when they leave their home county, their decisions may have a profound impact on the real-estate market, particularly the second home sector, and on the travel business.

Go read the whole thing, think about it, and start playing the second, third, and fourth moves out.  Who knows, just like Reagan said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this  wall”, we may find some new Conservative of excellent repute stating “Mr. President, tear down this Obamacare wall that has fundamentally transformed our citizens to travel freely!

Stella Paul continues with a couple of stories about people who had healthcare policies (reasonable coverage at reasonable prices) that allowed multiple residences in multiple states – either because of work requirements, extended vacations, or “snow birds” having a Northern residence for summer time and a Southern one for the winter time.  Now, each of those scenarios, and the freedom to travel scenarios stitched in and around them, are at risk thanks to the Obama Administration who is all but willing (along with their supporters like US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and our Democrat Party NH CongressCritters Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster).

They have enabled the world’s largest redistribution of wealth away from the middle class and have made those kids of travel dreams all but impossible except for the Very Rich.

“Then I got the letter telling me that my policy would no longer exist, because it didn’t comply with the new health care law. They wanted to transfer us into a new plan that doubled my premium to $900 a month. The deductible went up to $3,500, and it covered zero out of network.  My first worry was about Sloan-Kettering in New York, where I had surgery a few years back. If I needed cancer care there again, what would I do? Then I realized that if I wanted to see my South Carolina doctors, I’d have to pay out of pocket. That could wind up being extremely expensive, and that’s money we hadn’t budgeted for…

We both worked hard all our lives and saved our money, so we could live off our savings at this stage of our lives. Now here comes this new health care law, and I’m nervous about all these expenses we didn’t anticipate.   The stress has been tremendous, and at some point, it just won’t be worth it. I think the time is coming when we’re going to ditch our South Carolina home and move back north to be near our primary doctors.”

Like I said – county based:

I asked a prominent New York insurance broker about Sue’s situation. “Most of the networks on the exchanges are not national. Off the exchange, there a few that provide national coverage,” he said.   Any plan will cover emergencies. But if you need routine medical services, they will not be covered when you leave your local area, and on the old plans they were.

Bottom line?

“In the past, I’ve looked around and found them a policy that works for their circumstance. But ObamaCare doesn’t give you those options.”

One of America’s strengths has been our ability to get up and move any time we’ve wanted  – no asking anyone’s permission and no “Papers, please” mentalities on behalf of our Government.

Determined Weakness – elimination of all qualities that made America, America.

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