Lumberman Dean Angstadt tells one of the more dramatic stories about the impact of the Affordable Care Act. A loyal Republican and Fox Viewer who once said, “I don’t read what the Democrats have to say about it because I think they’re full of it,” Angstadt found himself self-employed, uninsured and in urgent need of heart-valve replacement surgery. He’d drunk the Fox News Kool-Aid, however, and at first adamantly refused to sign up through the ACA exchange.
Finally a friend convinced him to give it look:
From time to time, [Angstadt’s friend, Bob] Leinhauser would urge Angstadt to buy a plan through the ACA marketplace. And each time, Angstadt refused.
“We argued about it for months,” Angstadt said. “I didn’t trust this Obamacare. One of the big reasons is it sounded too good to be true.”
January came, and Angstadt’s health continued to decline. His doctor made it clear he urgently needed valve-replacement surgery. Leinhauser had seen enough and insisted his friend get insured.
“The only thing he was ever really adamant about was that Obamacare was the real deal,” Angstadt said. “I trusted him to at least take a look at it.”
Leinhauser went to Angstadt’s house, and in less than an hour, the duo had done the application. A day later, Angstadt signed up for the Highmark Blue Cross silver PPO plan and paid his first monthly premium: $26.11.
“All of a sudden, I’m getting notification from Highmark, and I got my card, and it was actually all legitimate,” he said. “I could have done backflips if I was in better shape.”
Angstadt’s plan kicked in on March 1. It was just in time. Surgery couldn’t be put off any longer. On March 31, Angstadt had life-saving valve-replacement surgery.
“I probably would have ended up falling over dead” without the surgery, Angstadt said. “Not only did it save my life, it’s going to give me a better quality of life.”
Angstadt faces a long recovery, but his conversion to ACA supporter is done. The political storm around the ACA, he said, is the political parties “fighting each other over things that can benefit people.”
Transcript of “All In” segment:
CHRIS HAYES: If you Google the words “Obamacare microchip,” prepare to fall down a bizarre, fear-mongering, anti-government YouTube vortex, if like me you have a perverse fascination with conspiracy theories. Like the mythic death panels, this is one of those paranoid rumors that zings around from inbox to inbox, and this prompted unintentionally hilarious debunking responses from serious media outlets that have to patiently explain, quote, “that was never true” and the Affordable Care Act doesn`t require micro-
chipping and it`s all very funny — except for this little anecdote from “The New York Times.” It illustrates the real life consequences of this nonsense.Quote: “The political polarization complicates our efforts to enroll people and to educate people about the Affordable Care Act. There`s no question,” said Perry Bryant, head of the advocacy group West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. “Literally, people thought there would be chips embedded in their bodies if they signed up for Obamacare.”
Those are the human consequences of the ceaseless propaganda war demonizing Obamacare. It doesn`t just make fodder for goofy Internet hijinks. It`s standing in the way of real, tangible improvements in people`s lives, real reduction in misery.
The fear-mongering about the Affordable Care Act is actually stopping people from signing up, like those folks in West Virginia, or this guy, Dean Angstadt, who told his story to “The Philadelphia Inquirer.” He was so resistant to the thought of submitting to the tyrannical Obamacare pushed by a party he despises that he refused to sign up, even though he needed to have a heart valve replaced.
Finally, his friend basically staged an intervention, helping him apply and choose a plan, which then enabled him to have life-saving surgery. And without that, Angstadt says — quote — “I probably would have ended up falling over dead.”
It is not hyperbole to say Obamacare fear-mongering almost took his guy`s life. Fortunately, he had a friend who knew better and helped him enroll by the deadline.
But as sure as I`m sitting here talking to you, there are people in this country who are lied to about this law, who believe those lies and who are going to pay for it with their own health. Paranoia is its own kind of communicable disease.
