At Last: Press Coverage Of Good Obamacare Stories

There's a silver lining to all the Obamacare rate-shock horror stories right-wing media have been feeding into the mainstream over the past week: good journalists have been both debunking those stories, and countering with the stories of people whose lives are made much easier with the options they have under the law. Here are a few, courtesy Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times.

Last summer Ellen Holzman and Meredith Vezina, a married gay couple in San Diego County, got kicked off their long-term Kaiser health plan, for which they'd been paying more than $1,300 a month. The cause wasn't the Affordable Care Act, as far as they knew. They'd been living outside Kaiser's service area, and the health plan had decided to tighten its rules. [...] Through Covered California, the state's individual insurance marketplace, they've found a plan through Sharp Healthcare that will cover them both for a total premium of $142 a month, after a government subsidy based on their income. They'll have a higher deductible than Kaiser's but lower co-pays. But their possible savings will be impressive. [...]

David Shevlino, 51, is an artist in Delaware. Between the COBRA policy that extends the coverage his wife, Kathy, received at a former job and the bare-bones policy that covers himself and their 15-year-old son, they've been laying out $1,000 a month in premiums. Next year they'll pay $650 a month, after the government subsidy, for a plan through Blue Cross of Delaware that covers the entire family and provides many services that have been excluded up to now.

That makes a big difference, especially for Kathy, who is still dealing with injuries she suffered in a cycling accident and that would have made her uninsurable once her COBRA ran out less than a year from now. [...]

And Judith Silverstein, 49, a Californian who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007. Her family helps her pay the $750 monthly cost of her existing plan--which she only had because of federal law requiring that insurers who provide employer-based insurance continue to offer coverage if the employer goes out of business, as hers did. Next year she'll get a subsidy that will get her a good "silver" level plan for $50. [...]

Jason Noble, 44, who has his own property management firm in Southern California, found a gold plan that will cover his wife and their three children--a daughter, 9, and 5-year-old twins--for a little less than $1,300 a month. That's slightly more than they'd be paying next year for their existing Blue Shield plan, but the benefits are much greater, including pediatric dental coverage. Their family deductible will fall from $3,400 to zero. Last year, the family had a health scare that ran them $1,800 in out-of-pocket expenses; a similar event next year would cost them nothing. "It's definitely a good deal," Noble says.

Then there are all those people who are glad to see their junk plans cancelled. They know they're junk plans, and even if they're paying more for premiums, they know that they'll be getting much, much better coverage and might even end up saving money with lower deductibles and preventive services with no copay.

These stories are vital reminders that there was a really good reason for insurance reform, for Obamacare. They're also the backdrop to all those polls that show the American people reject the idea of scrapping the law and going back to the way it was. Meanwhile, Republicans are still staking 2014 and 2016 on repeal, which is pretty much all they got at this point.