Every day we’re hearing more stories of Obamacare’s real-life impact on Americans. Three years after President Obama promised, “If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it,” people are receiving notices from insurance companies with surprising news.
Natalie Willes is one of them.
Willes, a Los Angeles sleep consultant, buys her own health insurance, and she was happy doing so until her provider, Kaiser Permanente, dropped her plan in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act.
“Before I had a plan that I had a $1,500 deductible,” she told CBS News. “I paid $199 a month. The most similar plan that I would have available to me would be $278 a month. My deductible would be $6,500, and all of my care after that point would only be covered 70 percent.”
Willes added, “So now I’m being forced to choose from a bunch of new plans that I don’t want to choose from that are all more expensive.”
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Willes isn’t alone. Gerry Kominski, who directs public health policy at UCLA, told CBS News, “About half of the 14 million people who buy insurance on their own are not going to be able to keep the policies that they had previously.”
In California alone, Kaiser Permanente is terminating policies for 160,000 people and offering new options that conform to Obamacare.