My Fictional Children's Teeth

I am going on record here as saying that there will be an outcry among the populace within two weeks, and it is not going to be because of anything that happens in Ferguson, Missouri.

This past Saturday opened the 2015 sign-up for insurance for those of us whose health plans were invalidated by the individual mandate of Obamacare.  As I have written, I will be paying about $1,090 per month, slightly up (OK, about 98%) from the $550 per month we now pay.  This is for two 63-year-old adults who have had zero change in health in 2014.

I spent a while on the phone with our insurer, Aetna, trying to determine which of the 3-4 plans they offer in our county was the best fit (i.e., the least devastating).  At one point I had to ask the name of one of the plans to write it down. I was told "VA Innovation Health Bronze Deductible-Only HSA PD."

Well, I know what VA and HSA mean, so I had to ask, "What does PD stand for?"  You are going to love the answer:

"Pediatric Dentistry"

"No, really?", I asked.  Oh, yes, boys and girls.  A significant part of the doubling of my premium is to provide two mandatory parts of my plan -- pediatric dental care and maternity coverage.  Are we kidding?  The Congress of the United States and the President of the United States thought it appropriate to pass a law that requires a 63-year-old couple to purchase coverage for pediatric dentistry, even though we have no children under the age of 33, and coverage for childbirth, even though, well, we're 63.

And if that weren't silly enough, try this on for size: our $550-per-month plan that becomes illegal on January 1st, 2015 actually has dental coverage in it.  The twice-the-price plan that the law forces us to buy starting January 1st not only does not have dental care for us, but we are paying for dental care for children we don't have!

I'm so flabbergasted that I have to say it again: the Obamacare law results in our paying for dental coverage for non-existent children, but it provides no dental coverage for us, who actually are paying the premium and who are, well, actual people with actual teeth.

One has to assume that our situation is being replicated in millions of households in the USA over these few weeks of sign-up.  May our voices be heard loudly now, even louder than they were heard on Election Day.

Because, friends, we need to replace Obamacare with a health insurance law that has some actual teeth.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton