Even though the failure of Obamacare's launch is now legendary, media outlets are still eager to find the silver lining outside the dark cloud. On the front of Sunday's Washington Post, reporter Stephanie McCrummen traveled to a poor county in eastern Kentucky to find people saying "Woo-hoo! I can go to the doctor now!?"
In Breathitt County, McCrummen (the scourge of the Rick Perry for President campaign) sat and watched poor people get signed up for Medicaid and become pleased with the Democrats.
The story began:
On the campaign trail, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was still blasting the new health-care law as unsalvageable. At the White House, President Obama was still apologizing for the botched federal Web site.
But in a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been busy signing people up: cashiers from the IGA grocery, clerks from the dollar store, workers from the lock factory, call-center agents, laid-off coal miners, KFC cooks, Chinese green-card holders in town to teach Appalachian students.
...In a state where 15 percent of the population, about 640,000 people, are uninsured, 56,422 have signed up for new health-care coverage, with 45,622 of them enrolled in Medicaid and the rest in private health plans, according to figures released by the governor’s office Friday.
If the health-care law is having a troubled rollout across the country, Kentucky — and Breathitt County in particular — shows what can happen in a place where things are working as the law’s supporters envisioned.
But the Post and McCrummen cannot claim that Team Obama "envisioned" that they would sign up a massive new wave of Medicaid recipients -- who will not be able to subsidize sicker, older people in private insurance plans. That promise of affordable private insurance through government management was their vision...once they decided single-payer socialism wouldn't fly.
Some of the anecdotal signups are revealing:
“What do I need here?” said Jeff Fletcher, who was being sued for those medical bills. “Proof of income?”
"Yep,” Lively said, and Fletcher pulled out documents showing that he and his wife live on about $500 a month in food stamps and her disability check.
“You smoke?” Lively asked, going through a few routine questions.
“Right- and left-handed,” he quipped as she typed.
“All right,” Lively said after a while. “You are covered.”
“I’m covered?” Fletcher said. He slapped the table. He clapped twice.
“Woo-hoo! I can go to the doctor now?” he asked Lively. “I’m serious. I need to go.”
A reader might ask why desperately poor people couldn't get on Medicaid before Obamacare was passed. But the Post didn't ask. Then there was Ronald Hudson:
He’d never had insurance before and said his hospital bills were up to $23,000 at this point.
“Good night,” Lively said, tapping in his information.
Kids: five. Salary: about $14,000 before taxes.
“You’re going to qualify for a medical card,” she told Hudson.
“Well, thank God,” Hudson said, laughing. “I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”
