Obamacare: Hardship and Heartache in the Heartland

Posted by Tina

Todd Sterns of Fox News asked friends in his Facebook community to respond with examples of how they had “faced hardships” as a result of ObamaCare. Read about some of replies he received here:

The response was overwhelming. I received nearly 1,000 replies – from small business owners, nurses, doctors, electricians, stay-at-home moms, and military personnel. Every single person said they had been adversely affected by President Obama’s signature legislation.

Readers with implementation and financial concerns might be interested in the possible miseries enumerated in a posting on the financial webpage, Bankrates, “6 Surprises From Health Insurance Reform”. They have noted, for instance that hospital mergers and acquisitions are up since Obamcare passed. Last time that happened was during the HMO crisis (Remember that?) when costs were also driven up as a result of a lack of competition and choice.

Victoria Taft, a former Portland radio talk show host posted a heartbreaking story about a doctor who lost his practice and took his own life over events and stresses that occurred after the passage of Obamacare. The story begged to be reprinted…most of it follows:

Dr. Philip Henderson, III of Longview, Washington, was a fourth generation doctor in this medium sized logging town in Cowlitz County in Southwest Washington. He was responsible for bringing 6,000 babies into this world. He started programs to help poor women receive prenatal care, helped out at a free clinic he helped start, gave thousands of hours -totaling five years-of his own, unpaid time to cover OB-GYN emergencies at the local hospital AND he volunteered for ten years at both local high schools to give teens “the talk.” He lobbied Senators and Congressional reps in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to slow the debilitating effects of ObamaCare on women’s health care in Washington State.

In the past several months, ObamaCare “winner” and “survivor,” Kaiser, ended its contract with Dr. Henderson’s four partner OB-GYN clinic, Lower Columbia Women’s Clinic, and decided to take over the thousands of patients this local practice had built up over decades. This move was designed to consolidate care necessitated by the constraints of ObamaCare. And this meant that many patients would now have to travel 40 minutes south to Vancouver, Washington to receive care. My brother-in-law’s practice would lose their patients. More important, their patients would not be able to keep their doctor-a promise made by the President about ObamaCare.

Stay with me.

During these difficult negotiations, two of the partners decided to leave to seek greener pastures. They knew it would collapse the clinic, but, undaunted, Dr. Henderson and his remaining partner turned to the local hospitals they served to get a temporary financial life line until they could hire replacements and get the clinic whole again. The hospitals said no. ObamaCare was putting the hospital in a squeeze and they couldn’t afford to help the Doctors who had given thousands of hours of free care to the hospital’s-and City’s-patients.

Under ObamaCare, you see, only the large survive. Or the people who can exempt themselves, like Congress. Or friends of people writing the bill who give their friends waivers, such as unions and big corporations.

When local hospitals turned down the financial life line, Dr. Henderson began searching for jobs for his co workers. He made phone calls on their behalf and helped their job hunting efforts. But the clinic his great-grandfather had started generations before would die.

Finally, when Dr. Henderson began looking for a position for himself, he was turned down. Under his proposal to Kaiser, for instance, Henderson could still see his-and Kaiser’s patients without them having to travel to get care. When he got the call turning him down, he emerged from his office shaking his head and said in a tone of voice his nurse had never heard before, “They don’t want me. No one wants a 63 year old doctor.”

The man who 20 years earlier had fought back and willed himself to walk after a devastating car accident and who worked hard to get back to his practice only to pour himself into his patients and his community, was a beaten man. It’s easy to see that now. It wasn’t in June.

This fine doctor was not among the winners picked in Obama’s ambitious corporatist promoted vision.

Thoroughly defeated and distraught he took his own life.

There is no excuse in America for legislation or regulation that picks winners and losers, that pits citizens against citizens in a dog-eat-dog environment. There is no excuse for regulation that denies our freedoms to live and to work or that crushes industriousness and investments that create jobs and promote innovative ideas.

This legislation is terrible. It was conceived by ignorant, tyrannical extremists in control of the Democrat Party that have placed their dream of single payer healthcare above citizens rights and have conspired with corporations to do it…picking winners and losers without the slightest concern for the general welfare of the people! (A tenet of their sworn duty)

Readers with personal stories of hardship are encouraged to share their experiences post Obamacare via email to the House of Representatives: obamacare@mail.house.gov.