Letters: Unhappy with Obamacare

The news story "Anger at health-care hikes" [Nov. 4] points out that many middle-income workers will have to pay more for health care coverage with higher deductibles, and the Obama administration says that many lower-income people will get better coverage for less money due to federal subsidies.

The question is, who pays for the federal subsidies? Is this why President Barack Obama wants to raise the debt limit, to borrow for the subsidies? Or is the middle-income working class being asked to pay for the subsidies in addition to higher premiums?

Gene Dunn, Coram
 

Can someone explain why the online purchasing of health insurance wasn't set up similar to gasoline purchases during last year's shortage?

We should have arranged something along the lines of having those with last names A through H the first month, I through P the second month, and Q through Z the final month. This would have spread out the interest over three months.

Ronald Sacks, Centereach
 

As one of the small group of individuals and small businesses that has been summarily dismissed from my health plan -- one I was most pleased with -- allow me to tell my experience.

At the gym, while discussing, of all things, the mess of Obamacare, I injured myself. I went to a Stat-Health facility that I have used in the past. The wound was dressed, and I paid the $20 co-pay required under my soon-to-be-terminated plan.

Under the best-case scenario, with the plans available as of Jan. 1, my out-of-pocket payment for that visit would have been $95, according to Stat-Health. My deductible for 2014 would be, minimally, $2,000 to $3,000 for this kind of "diagnostic" care, before any insurance participation. My monthly premium, which is now $500, would range from $450 to $642.

Under the new plan, I would not have gone to Stat-Health; I would have taken care of the injury myself.

This law does nothing but increase individuals' real cost under the guise of a reasonable premium by front-loading the huge deductible. A massive fraud has been perpetrated on the citizenry.

Susan E. Hopkins, Kings Park