◼ Thursday, in the Wall Street Journal, Nicole Hopkins tells the heartbreaking and infuriating story of how the injustice that is ObamaCare forced her mother, 52-year-old Charlene Hopkins, on to the welfare program known as Medicaid. - John Nolte/Breitbart
Yes, forced. First, ObamaCare canceled a policy she was happy with, and then the ObamaCare exchange tricked her into signing up for Medicaid by making that her only option....
So not only was this poor woman conned into signing up for welfare, apparently she can't opt out -- which makes sense. Whether it is against their will or not, the more people Obama can herd onto his scorecard, the better.
The thing is, Hopkins has always been eligible for Medicaid. But she is a dying breed of American -- one with too much self-respect to accept a government handout when she can find a way to make it on her own.
Something cold-hearted leftist technocrats like Barack Obama, Ezra Klein, Josh Barro, and much of the mainstream media will never understand is a woman like Charlene Hopkins: Someone who took great pride in making it on her own but is now despairing and demoralized (her daughter's words) to find herself forced into welfare.
Before ObamaCare, Medicaid was one option. Not the option. Before this, she had never been, in effect, ordered to take a handout. Now she has been forced to join the government-reliant poor, though she would prefer to contribute her two mites. The authorities behind "affordable care" had erased her right to calculate what she was willing to spend to preserve her dignity—to determine what she thinks is affordable.The wake of human destruction behind ObamaCare's rollout is just beginning to be tolled -- millions of cancellations and tens of millions more likely coming, premium and deductible increases on middle class families who can’t afford them, the loss of doctors….
That little contribution can mean the difference between dignity and despair.
But how many Charlene Hopkins are out there? How many thousands, tens of thousands, or millions have or will be forced by ObamaCare into a choice that was unthinkable just the day before: Go without health insurance or give up a piece of your dignity by accepting a government handout?
◼ AND MORE: TOP CANCER HOSPITAL NOT INCLUDED ON OBAMACARE PLANS SOLD IN NY - John Sexton/Breitbart
One of New York's top hospitals, the first one in the world dedicated to treating cancer, is not currently included in any Obamacare plans being sold in the state.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is one of the largest cancer hospitals in the world, but for the million or so New Yorkers who are eventually expected to purchase insurance over the state's exchange, treatment there will not be part of their coverage....
The situation in New York is a part of a larger pattern. In Washington, Seattle's Children's Hospital is suing the state because it was left out of plans offered on the state's exchange.
◼ Sticker shock hits health exchange shoppers - USA Today
