Morning Must-Read: Bob Forester: I signed up for health insurance, told my GOP Congressman about it…

Bob Forester: Daily Kos: I signed up for health insurance, told my GOP Congressman about it, and made the local news:

My healthcare saga began in 2002…. No longer did I have a group plan selected by an employer. I had to shop for my own coverage. At first it was easy…. But each year the dreaded renewal letter arrived, and the premiums increased by leaps and bounds…. But the big shock was yet to come… renewal letter… $756 instead of $463–a staggering 63% increase…. I applied for a very-high-deductible plan that would keep my monthly payment in the $400 range. Given that I was still insured, the insurance folks got a copy of the blood test, which they proceeded to search line by line…. Out of two pages of data, there was a single thyroid reading was outside of “normal” range (side note: there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid; it was simply their excuse to make me pay that outrageous premium). They’d found their so-called preexisting condition, and denied me access to the new plan with the lower premium. With the help of my doctor, who wrote a letter on my behalf, I appealed…. “It wasn’t a government bureaucrat that came between me and my doctor; it was an insurance-company bureaucrat….”

I really wanted to talk directly with Rep. Scott…. I was courteous, and as succinct as I could manage. My message was that the website that he had just maligned in his speech was now functioning. I had obtained health insurance for half of the cost of the plan that I dropped two and a half years ago. Rep. Scott admitted that one of his relatives had recently obtained lower-cost coverage, too. But he still thought that Obamacare is a mess and needs to be replaced with something else….

I thanked him, and walked over to the reporter who was still patiently waiting…. The resulting two minute broadcast gave me nearly equal billing with my Congressman! The local station must have been looking for “both sides,” and I was the other side. The two quotes from me that aired:

I was able to get an insurance plan and with the tax credit, it’s going to be about half of the price that it was going to be two and a half years ago. They’ve definitely got the website up and running now, and so you can get online and see if there is something out there that works for you….

I have no illusions about changing the way Austin Scott votes. But here in deep-red central Georgia, a few television viewers were able to get a positive message about the Affordable Care Act…