Woman Who Said Obamacare Was Unaffordable Is Saving Over $1,200 a Year on it
Remember Julie Boonstra, the cancer patient who claimed in a Koch Brothers-funded ad that Obamacare got her good insurance plan cancelled and now her new insurance plan's "out-of-pocket costs are so high, it’s unaffordable?" It turns out that she's actually saving at least $1,200 a year with her new "unaffordable" insurance plan.
.Remember Julie Boonstra, the cancer patient who claimed in a Koch Brothers-funded ad that Obamacare got her good insurance plan cancelled and now her new insurance plan's "out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable?"
It turns out that she's actually saving at least $1,200 a year with her new "unaffordable" insurance plan.
Boonstra's ad has come under fire before, with Sen. Harry Reid saying it (and other anti-Obamacare ads) was "untrue" last week. (Boonstra has called Reid's statement hurtful and demanded an apology.) Today, the Detroit News did even more digging and found that Boonstra's old plan cost her $13,200 a year in premiums alone. That's not including what she spent on out-of-pocket expenses, like co-pays and deductibles.
Boonstra's new "unaffordable" plan, on the other hand, will cost her $11,952 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs, which means she's saving at least $1,200 a year -- probably a lot more than that, as out-of-pocket maximums are usually several thousand dollars.
There was also the matter of a prescription drug that was covered by Boonstra's old plan but not her new one, which she has to buy with a separate prescription drug savings card. This would not be part of her out-of-pocket maximum and thus inflate her medical costs ... except that her new insurance company told the Detroit News that all of her prescriptions are covered by her plan. And that she should probably use her plan to pay for them instead of the discount card so it would apply to her out-of-pocket maximum.
When informed that she was saving money on this new unaffordable plan, Boonstra was thrilled and apologized for being mistaken earlier. Just kidding! She said it "can't be true," and "I personally do not believe that."