Obamacare crushing citizens

I had a good chuckle reading Alix Foster’s well-intentioned column in last week’s copy of the La Conner Weekly News. I have tried to steer clear of the recent trend of partisan politics oozing into the pages of our beloved weekly paper, but I now feel obligated to stand up for an overlooked and abused group of citizens: The poor saps who actually have to purchase Obamacare plans in Skagit County.

Obamacare has been an unmitigated, slow-motion train wreck. As an Obamacare exchange customer since 2014, I have deep knowledge of the depth and magnitude of its problems. Don’t take my word for it. Jonathan Gruber, the chief architect of both Romneycare and Obamacare, admitted that Obamacare only passed due to “lack of transparency” and “the stupidity of the American voter.”

This year, state-wide premiums rose an average of 24 percent. If I tried to charge my customers 24 percent more this year, I would be out of business in a few months. Here is where it gets even more frightening: For Skagit County, all insurance companies, except for Kaiser Permanente (which has no facilities in Skagit County) have thrown in the towel and no longer offer plans here. Let me repeat that. In 2018, you have no choice of insurers for exchange-purchased plans in Skagit County. What happens in 2019 if zero insurance companies wish to offer plans here?

Middle-class citizens are getting absolutely crushed. If Ms. Foster understood this, she would not have been so surprised with the results of the 2016 elections. I don’t doubt for a second that the “Sister District” movement has good intentions, but continuing this partisan rhetoric will only lead us down the road to hell.

Jon Walton