Hip Czech
by CYNDY SLOVAK-BARTON
Thank God for Obamacare.
It’s not what you would expect. So many people are screaming and complaining about making everyone buy at least a little bit of health insurance, regardless of the fact that such a proposal makes health care available and affordable and allows choice in the system. But there comes a time when you have to say, “thank you” for making healthcare available to all of us.
I came face-to-face with a big thank you for health insurance last week when my 22-year-old son ended up in the emergency room. Yes, he has graduated from college; yes, he is looking for a full-time job; yes, he has managed to get a part-time job in this economy.
But that part-time job doesn’t offer him health insurance. And under old health insurance days, he would have been kicked off his parents’ policy.
But, thanks to Obamacare, I am able to keep him on my own insurance until his mid-20s.
Just a few years ago, I would not have been able to afford health insurance for myself or my employees. Our staff is healthy. We have runners, tennis players, joggers and yoga enthusiasts on staff. There are no major problems. And yet, we were constantly denied insurance. Why? Our group of six full-time employees was too small. No insurance company would cover us, unless we were willing to pay the equivalent of a full-time salary just for health insurance.
But thanks to Obamacare, we have been pooled with other small businesses. We have health care. And, we have health care that extends to all of our families – even to a 22-year-old who would have been kicked off any insurance under the old laws at the ripe old age of 21.
I think I like the word Obamacare. All of you who have Medicare, who work for big corporations, who work for governmental entities can denigrate that word all you want.
But for those of us in the trenches, in the small businesses that are causing the turnaround in this economy, that are creating the jobs, I say “Hurrah for Obamacare.”
Because my son is well, taken care of, and didn’t have to go into bankruptcy at the age of 22 just to cover a hospital visit.
