Montana Obamacare Ain't Worth a Bucket of Warm Piss

Is Obamacare helping you?
 
I’m guessing it’s not.
 
If you’re like most Americans, you’ve seen your monthly premium double or quadruple while your deductible has skyrocketed.
 
Last night I signed up for an Obamacare plan for my family.
 
It’s a bronze-level plan and it looks like this:
 

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As you can see, I’m paying nothing each month for this plan.
 
Because of that I get a $13,100 deductible.
 
Cancer and car wrecks – that’s all Obamacare is good for.
 
That’s all I expect to use Obamacare for – if I get cancer or have a monumental car wreck.
 
Those are the only two things that are going to drive my medical costs up and over $13,000.
 
Only then will my Obamacare insurance be worth anything…after I’ve paid $13,000 of my own money.
 
Only then will insurance kick in to ‘help.’
 
That’s why I say Obamacare ain’t worth a bucket of warm piss.
 

 
I told you at the end of August how I dislocated my foot while in Oregon.
 
Then I told you at the end of November how the hospital just ate those costs.
 
Why’d they do that?
 
Simple – I made $17,000 last year, my wife didn’t make much more, and together we had a combined family income of $30,000.
 
The federal poverty level for a family of three is $20,160.
 
So we’re within the 100% to 400% of the federal poverty line. So we don't pay.
 
That also means we qualify for Obamacare tax credits.
 
This year we get about $630 in tax credits.
 
Yes, that means that the bronze plan I chose with a $13,000 deductible typically has a $630 a month premium.
 
Can you imagine paying $630 for that shit-shingle plan?
 
I can’t, and I won’t.
 
I’ll pay $0 for that plan as that’s all it’s worth.
 
Well-off families in America will make up for that $630 that I’m not paying.
 
They’ll do this with their higher premiums and their higher deductibles.
 
Hell, I heard on the radio last night that a family of 5 somewhere has seen their Obamacare premium go from $600 a month to $2,500 a month!
 
And that’s a plan with a $6,000 deductible.
 
So that family will pay $30,000 a year in premiums and then if they actually need to use their health insurance, they’ll pay $6,000 more before insurance covers anything.
 
Obamacare – ain’t worth a bucket of warm piss.
 

 
Now, you’re not going to hear me bitch and moan about Obamacare too much.
 
Last year I had a $7 a month premium and paid $84 for the whole year.
 
When I got hurt, my insurance made it quite clear that they weren’t going to help me.
 
So this year I’m just going to pay $0 a month.
 
I’m not stupid.
 
I know how the system works.
 
Why would I pay for health insurance when my family income is so low that ultimately, I won’t be charged a penny for medical care?
 
Going to the emergency room is the best for this – they can’t refuse you service from the get-go like clinics or other places might.
 
So healthcare in America is working for me.
 
It works for me because I choose to live in poverty.
 
Oh, I could go out and get a job at Walmart here in Missoula, maybe do some fast food, some retail work, or even get some kind of janitorial position.
 
But why?
 
So my income can go up and I have to pay for medical care?
 
Hell, I’d rather live in poverty and have the well-off taxpayers pay that for me.
 
I know how the system works.
 
Plus, I don’t mind living in poverty.
 
It’s pretty nice, actually.
 

• I don’t have a TV (with expensive cable) so I’m not assaulted by a constant bombardment of advertising for shit I don’t need or want.

 

• I don’t take a lot of trips to places I’m not really interested in and don’t want to spend money at in the first place.

 

• I don’t have a super new car with a big monthly payment.

 

• I don’t own a home with a big monthly payment.

 

• I don’t have a bunch of credit cards with big monthly payments.

 

• I don’t have student loan debt.

 
Mostly, I live a minimalist lifestyle free of consumer goods and the desire to collect more.
 
Again, not having the TV is the most important for this – without that constant, 5-hour-a-day barrage of propaganda assaulting me, I don’t feel the need to go out and spend and buy and rack up debt.
 
In that regard, I’m not like most Americans.
 
And because I’m not, because I don’t feel the need to buy and go into debt, I have no problem living in poverty.
 
The only reason not to live in poverty is because you want lots of things.
 
You don’t need them, but you want them. So you work more, often at a job or jobs you don’t like, and many times you go into debt.
 
To me that’s not just a deep level of monetary poverty, that’s poverty of the soul.
 

 
Let’s talk about some other things.
 
As you know, the Montana Infrastructure Coalition is the main driver for the various local option sales taxes that our largest cities want.
 
Here in Missoula they really want one and it’s the same in Billings.
 
Over in Billings it’s a real theatre of the absurd.
 
Tonight their city council will vote on whether to support the local option sales tax or not.
 
This is nothing more than a gesture.
 
The only one that can decide whether we’ll have a sales tax or not is you, the voter.
 
Sure, city councils might vote to support it, which might give legislators in Helena a feeling that people actually want this.
 
That way they can justify voting for this.
 
So they vote for it, it passes the legislature, and then the various cities can put the sales tax on the November ballot.
 
They’ll want to get that puppy on there in an off-year, like 2017.
 
Turnout is lower, mainly teachers and other property taxpayers that see some benefit in a sales tax.
 
And some cities might see ‘em pass.
 
It really is hard to say at this point. Personally, I feel most voters in Missoula will vote against this when it does eventually get onto the ballot.
 
I’m extremely proud of them for doing that.
 
Because you know what? I can’t think of one way in which a sales tax is going to benefit my life, not one.
 
Or is paying 3% more on certain purchases going to improve my life?
 
I doubt it.
 
Oh, and what is the project here in Missoula that the sales tax money will be directed toward?
 
We know that with these local option sales taxes:
 

• Only a specific project can be funded;

 

• The sales tax will exist only until enough money has been raised for that project;

 

• The sales tax can only last for 10 years.

 
The fact that we’re even talking about sales taxes makes me wish Gianforte won.
 
Hell, I voted for him. I knew the Dem smear tactics of him supporting a sales tax were bullshit.
 
The only one supporting a sales tax are rich county commissioners, well-off city councilors, and a bunch of yahoos in the legislature and the scum with the Montana Infrastructure Coalition.
 
Let’s not even get into the 10 cent a gallon hike that legislators want to do for the gas tax.
 
How is paying an extra dollar every time I fill up my car going to help me?
 
Remember, I live in poverty so I really hang onto those dimes.
 
Oh, I guess it’s so we can fix our roads.
 
If fixing roads was so important to a place like Missoula, however, why’d we spend $42 million on parks and trails, $30 million for a new library, $17 million for a private developer to expand the mall, and $2 million for a one-way street study?
 
You’re telling me that $91 million wouldn’t have fixed our fucking roads?
 
When I hear bullshit like that I know it’s time to get new representatives at all levels of government – city, county, legislative, state, and federal.
 

• First of all, we should be directing the vast majority of our federal tax dollars back to the states so they can use that for what they need.

 

• Second, we should get out of Iraq because it should be clear by now that the CIA lied to us, Colin Powell lied to us, George W. Bush lied to us, and there were no weapons of mass destruction. So…why are we still there?

 

• Third, if Big Pharma wants to continue to have a reliable supply of opium for their pre-heroin-user drugs, let them hire their own private security forces for Afghanistan, not the U.S. military.

 

• Fourth and finally, if people in Helena and people in Washington aren’t going to talk like this, then what the hell are they doing there in the first place?

 
That’s why I’ll never vote for Tester and I’ll encourage everyone else to not vote for him either.
 
Just leave it blank.
 
Because honestly, if Tester’s been in Washington for 10 years and we still have these problems, we’re still at war, and the country continues to fall apart…what the hell is he doing?
 
What do we need him for?
 
The country will continue to go right to hell whether Tester is there or not.
 
10 years and you can’t raise your voice against our dual wars, Jon?
 
Shame on you.
 
Don’t you think the best way to help veterans would be to stop creating them?
 
But he doesn’t think like that. He’s a corporate hack, just like the rest of ‘em.
 
I’ll be glad when he loses in 2018.
 
Whether we’ll have a sales tax and an increased gas tax in Montana by then, I don’t know.
 
Perhaps.
 
I’ll just spend less, like I do now.
 
You know full-well I’m going to try like hell to not make anymore money.
 
Gotta protect that poverty-level status that keeps me healthy, right?
 
I do feel sorry for the American middle class, though, or at least what’s left of it.
 
Nothing will get better for them. Higher insurance costs, paying more for gas, paying more to eat out…times are tough for them.
 
Oh well – it’s how they want it.
 
They know full-well that D’s or R’s aren’t going to be changing their lives.
 
But they keep votin’ for ‘em.
 
Maybe one day they’ll wake up.
 
Until then, thanks for paying my way.