High Obamacare Costs Are Literally Killing People

As the Fed celebrated positive GDP growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2014, cash-strapped Americans scratched their head in disbelief.

“My health insurance costs are killing me!” they screamed. That is true, both figuratively and literally. For those of us who live on Main Street, instead of being able to spend our money on household goods, clothes, Christmas gifts or (shudder) a winter vacation- we’ve had to dish out every last penny on health insurance premiums.

And for those who can’t afford those premiums, they go without health insurance – a decision that could cost them their lives.

True story: A friend of mine, a single mom, used to spend $350 per month on health insurance for herself and her daughter, with a $500 deductible – pre-Obamacare.

Because she makes just over the threshold to qualify for subsidies, her cost jumped to $1,200 a month with a $5,000 deductible, for her, and $175 per month for her 17-year old daughter. Can you say: 450% increase?

Being the good mother she is, she bought health insurance for her daughter and went without any insurance for herself. For the first time in her life, she has no health insurance. Nothing. At 60 years old, an emergency hospitalization or surgery could result in her literally losing her house, savings and pension .

Because she has no insurance, she is not going to go for a regular check-up and pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket costs for blood tests. Illnesses, cancer and life-threatening diseases will not be detected.

Another case in point. A friend of mine got in a car accident and had to spend 1 day in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. ONE DAY. The bill came to $32,000. No broken bones, no coma, just a few bruises and a shoulder that needed to be popped back in.

Instead of seeing increased health care coverage, we are seeing people that once could afford their health insurance, not being able to, and those at the very bottom, who formerly could not afford it, now get it for free. Isn’t that, um…..socialism?

Because the increased spending on Obamacare is so high, people are spending much MORE on health insurance. So much, that it actually consumes 40% of the whole US GDP.

For the the fourth quarter of 2014, the total spending on healthcare in chained-dollars was a whopping $35.3 billion. An all time record high!

And the absolute shocker: of the $89.1 billion increase in Q4 GDP in chained-dollars, healthcare was $35.3 billion of that, or 40% of the total. Yes, healthcare spending accounted for 40% of GDP growth in Q4!

Yes, that’s correct. The money you spend on health insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc., etc., is counted towards the Gross Domestic Product. See how the GDP is another fabricated statistic?

Getting back to the Fed’s cluelessness as to why Americans aren’t spending their “gas savings” on “stuff”, apparently they haven’t noticed the skyrocketing food costs. Not only are food prices substantially higher, the packages they come in are substantially smaller.

As a person who lives on Main Street, I know that we are not in a recovery, there is little to no growth in GDP, and there is not enough money in anyone’s budget to afford buying anything beyond mandatory, exorbitant health care costs and a trip to the grocery store.

So, yes, Obamacare is killing us, in more ways than one.

Article authored by Carol Serpa. You can find the original story right here.