Believing In Big Government Doesn't Work Out So Well When You Need A Colonoscopy
Hope and change. You'd better hope some doctor will get a fever and change his mind about not taking Obamacare.

In The New York Times, Elizabeth Rosenthal writes about a bunch of Manhattan women -- Obama and "Affordable" "Care" Act supporters -- who can't get doctors appointments:

AMY MOSES and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: "We don't take Obamacare," the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president's signature health legislation.

"Anyone who is on these plans knows it's a two-tiered system," said Ms. Moses, describing the emotional sting of those words to a successful entrepreneur.

"Anytime one of us needs a doctor," she continued, "we send out an alert: 'Does anyone have anyone on an exchange plan that does mammography or colonoscopy? Who takes our insurance?' It's really a problem."

So, Mrs. Moses, who "previously had insurance," but had her old plan cut by our "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" President, now still has insurance; she just can't find any doctors who take it.

Because I'm in an HMO, I still have insurance; but Obamacare has made my monthly cost and my deductible high, so, like Mrs. Moses, I can't get the breast MRIs I'd been ordered to have every two years or a colonoscopy. (I just take the mail in poop test and hope I don't get cancer.)

Mrs. Moses, like others with Obamacare, finds that she is a second-class patient. Belief in the benevolent power of big government is better when you don't actually need anything out of it.

A NYT commenter in Texas, SKM, has his or her eyes opened:

The way the plans are listed on healthcare.gov is exactly backward. Rather than allowing me to select my preferred doctor and deductible, and then showing me which plans fit those needs, I had to prowl through dozens of plans with the meaningless "bronze," "silver," and "gold" designations, not knowing if the doctors I've been seeing for years were participating in them.

I work in User Experience design, and this is exactly the sort of presentation I would expect from an industry that isn't interested in what I need -- only in what they want to offer me.

And here, another commenter, m.pipik, in New York:

I am willing to pay more for better insurance, but I can't. The ACA 4 levels of insurance are meaningless. They don't offer 4 different levels of service. You get the same tiny network you just pay more or less out-of-pocket. I'd rather pay less for a more catastrophic plan--I'll pay for my doctor visits myself.

Finally, why can't I negotiate my own payment with my doctor? Let her get the insurance reimbursement and I'll pay the difference. Every time I go to a doctor that isn't in the plan, the insurance company pockets their fee for that visit.

Dream on, baby.

via @instapundit