Matt Walsh, whose blog is mandatory reading, asked his audience to tell him the stories of how Obamacare has already made a major negative difference in their lives.

The response he got was more than he could have ever imagined. So many stories, all with the same basic theme – namely, that Obamacare has exploded the economics of health insurance for employees of small businesses and imposed costs on middle- and lower-middle class folks which are simply not possible to bear.

We’ll excerpt just a few of them, but you should really go and read the whole thing here. It will take your breath away.

Sherry, Michigan:

My name is Sherry and I am a 27 year old Wife and Homeschooling mom of 2 from Michigan. Our family is at the peak of health, I work out, eat healthy and the last time I was hospitalized was in the 1st grade from an injury. My husband and children are both very healthy and at the peak of health as well.Because of the New Obamacare law, my husbands company will only be covering employees but not their children or spouses. That leaves myself and my two daughters to find care on our own. I went onto the Marketplace website and I was quoted 525 dollars with a 3,000 dollar deductiable to cover me and my girls. My husband through his work will be paying 240 dollars a month just for him with a 1500 dollar deductiable. We make a little less then 60K a year. Paying over 700 bucks a month to be covered is outrageous. OurPremiums from last year to this year have more then doubled! What makes me upset is My parents are both in their early 60s and both has battled cancer these past few years, have health problems up the wazoo are paying very close to what our family is paying. This is ridiclous and I hope people realize what a mistake Obamacare really it.

 

Jan, Idaho:

Keeping this short and sweet. I’m Jan, a female from Idaho. I live on my pension plus Social Security, which I started drawing this year at age 62. Been treated twice for cancer in the last five years. My current Blue Cross policy is not great, but it’s what I could afford.It is not acceptable under the ACA, however and I’ll be losing it just after the first of the year. Preliminary inquiries into another policy point toward a doubling of my annual deductible (from $5,000.00 a year to $10,000.00) and a more than $200.00 increase in my already-substantial monthly premium payments.

This increase is not something that I can afford. After my current coverage is deactivated in the next couple of months, I will be uninsured, for the first time in my life. I have accepted that fact, and come to terms with it. The ACA? I will not comply. I will pay the fine, instead.

Obamacare will be the death of me.

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Christy, Alabama:

We own a small business. Actually, my husband runs an internet sales business. He used to own a small janitorial cleaning service. The economy of 2008 (and forward) kind of wiped that out…..after almost 20 good years. We purchase our health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. We have to buy from them individually. Our premiums right now are $420/month. We just got our notice that we can’t keep our plan, and if we want to get the plan that is closest to our old plan, it will cost us $1005/month. That is about the same as our mortgage. We need a new van for our growing family of 8. We would like to redo our kitchen. Neither of these are now an option. We will also have to dial back our spending every month. Imagine those decisions on a massive scale across America…… I can hear the crash already.

One thing which seems to come through these stories is that under Obamacare, it’s going to be nearly impossible to have a big family without getting government help. Who have big families and don’t seek government help? Conservatives, and particularly Christian conservatives. Does anybody think this is an accident?

More…

Angie, North Carolina:

We priced healthcare thru the new system and because we’re not on welfare, it would cost us a whopping $1800 a month for coverage. It sucks because our current coverage thru work doesn’t even cover well child visits or immunizations for our kids.

On top of it all, Obama and his lackeys worked into their Healthcare Reform Bill additional taxes for “landlords”. We had to move due to a job change and the market was so horrible in North Carolina we would have had to take a loss on our home. Instead we rented it out and thanks to Obama, now have to pay TAX on the rental money paid to us….not rental PROFIT, ALL RENT paid. Never mind that we are not making a cent on the deal – in fact when property taxes and homeowners insurance are factored in, we are losing $700 a month. The additional tax ON TOP of the rental “income” and personal loss just feels like he’s pouring salt in the wound.

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Katie, Texas:

My husband and I are twenty-somethings with student debt up to our eyeballs, full time jobs and a toddler. We hover right above the ‘poverty line’, and we work our butts off to pay bills and provide for our child. We’re your typical middle class family.

My company provided insurance for us for an extremely good price of $95 a month. Since the ACA was signed in, it has gone up to $350 a month to be up to ACA ‘guidelines’. You might be thinking ‘just $350?’, and while it’s true that this seems like pocket change to you, for a young mom who clips coupons and works on a strict budget to put food on the table, it is devastating.

The saddest part is this: If I quit my job, I could get free insurance through Medicaid, food stamps and WIC. And you wonder why there is an epidemic of laziness and entitlement in this country?

This thing is going to make the economics of resisting welfare extremely difficult.

Remember the Cloward-Piven strategy? It involves putting so many people on the welfare rolls that the entire capitalist-with-a-safety-net system collapses. This thing looks like a two-fer: the Healthcare.gov debacle saddles the insurance business with a new clientele almost exclusively of sick people who are desperate enough that they’ll wade through a dysfunctional website to buy health insurance while the young, healthy folks needed to balance the sickies won’t go through that inconvenience to buy insurance at disfavorable rates, and that’s the part which ultimately collapses the private health insurance system. Meanwhile, the cost spiral Obamacare represents squeezes the middle class to such a point that government dependency and Democrat constituency is their only option. And once that tipping point is reached, the whole economy then becomes…something else.

But this is what it looks like on the way to that place…

Melanie, California:

I got our new rates in the mail a few weeks ago, we pay for it ourselves, and found out that our monthly rates are going from $700 a month to $1000 a month for a family of 5. “Ok, that’s not too bad, I guess. It sucks, but we will make it.” Then I look closer at our coverage and start crying. I haven’t cried for 7 years before this day. We have a $5000 deductible that we have to pay before the insurance will cover anything!!!!! This includes doctor visits and prescriptions! What is the monthly premium for if we still have to shell out all the money every time our kid gets pink eye? Maybe we should cancel our insurance and save our $1000 a month and pay the fine for not having insurance. Then at least we would be able to afford going to the doctor if we needed to, since we will pay for it either way. But wait, I have surgery scheduled in January. We are screwed, there is no way out. I hope the end of the world happens soon. I really do. Thanks for the opportunity to vent and express my sadness at what has happened to our once great country.

Tom, no state given:

I am a 58YO self employed person with a pre existing condition. Diabetic since age 14. Presently I am covered by a Wisconsin high risk pool (HIRSP) at a rate of $427.00 per month with a fairly decent prescription plan and a $5000.00 year deductible. This ceases to exist on 12/31/2913. Under Obama care a similar plan with a $4500.00 deductible and higher co pays on everything. I cannot afford it.

Marisa, California:

Here is my sad story.  I have had Blue Shield for the last 3 years. Never missed a payment, only go to the doctor once maybe twice a year. Never have prescriptions. Perfectly happy with my insurance life. Then ObamaCare came into effect…Now my insurance company has dumped me as of January 2014. The only other insurance that is offered to me is Covered California. So I called them and for WORSE insurance coverage, my monthly payment is going to go from $149 to $283!!! For just me!! A healthy 31 year old!!!! So forget it, I am going to go on Medi-Share.

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Destiny, Oregon:

We’ve had benefits through my husband’s employer (Wells Fargo) for the eight years we’ve been married. We’ve had two kids during that time, one under Bush’s presidency, one under Obama’s (this last April). The first baby cost us $200 in medical bills. The second baby cost us $8,000. Yep. Eight thousand dollars. In the last three years we have seen our deductible raise significantly (it’s now at $6,000) and our premiums raise just as much. About $400 is taken out of my husband’s check every two weeks, and we have to have six thousand dollars in medical bills before they pay for anything. It never used to be that way. When we got married, our deductible was $300 per person.

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Gayle, Virginia:

I am an adjunct instructor at a community college in Virginia. As a result of Obamacare, the Virginia Community College System decided to limit all adjuncts to 9 credit hours of teaching per semester in the fall and spring and 6 hours in the summer. I used to teach 15 credit hours per semester until this policy kicked in last semester. As I like to tell people, Obamacare forced the college to cut my hours in order to avoid having to provide me with insurance that I neither want nor need. Incidentally, I am the only adjunct at my college who is certified to teach the courses that I teach, which means the college is unable to offer the two additional courses that I would have been teaching. I’m screwed. The college is screwed. The students who needed those courses are screwed.

Lindsay, Texas:

Our government and their ridiculous views have screwed me. I was laid off this past April from the mortgage company I worked for. I filed for unemployment and then became sick with serious heart and intestinal issues and am currently in need of an arterial bypass on my Superior Mesenteric Artery and an intestinal reroute and bypass to avoid any further issues. Unfortunately, until I’m right on “Deaths Door”, I can’t have it done because as a single mom, I can’t afford what will be probably a $250k surgery.

See, in Texas, you don’t qualify for Medicaid if you make more than $251/mo for a family of 3. That said, I had to apply for Obamacare. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that I don’t make enough to qualify for Obamacare and they referred me to apply for Medicaid.

So now, I’m here. Waiting for what will eventually kill me because I fall in between and don’t qualify for either option. I’m the poster child for who Obama said he was helping. The single mom who is struggling to get by. I continue to make my mortgage, buy groceries and pay utilities. My father helps me with my prescriptions for now but he’s on disability and can’t help much. I’ve called the Governors office to speak with an Aide or Chief of Staff, yet funny how nobody can return a phone call. Ever.

This can’t continue. Early next year when Obamacare becomes completely inescapable and people either have to buy policies which are far more expensive than they’ve been or pay a fine and sock money away to pay for medical expenses which might arise, you’ll see consumer spending take a dive – which will probably plunge the economy into a recession.

That of course will be blamed on anything but Obamacare and anybody but Obama. We’ll see whether that spin will cut it with the public.