[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17020]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            OBAMACARE--HURTING THE HARDWORKING MIDDLE CLASS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ANN WAGNER

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2013

  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks, I have received far too 
many heartbreaking stories from the people of the 2nd District about 
how government-run healthcare is impacting their lives.
  Today, I rise to put a face on the horrors of ObamaCare and tell Jim 
and Kim Curtis's story who hail from Arnold, in Missouri.
  This is their story in their own words.

       We, the working middle class, are the ones who are being 
     hurt by this law.
       We struggle every day to make ends meet.
       But now, because of Obamacare, we received a notice from 
     the insurance company that the plan we currently pay for does 
     not meet the guidelines and we will no longer be covered on 
     January 1st, 2014.
       Now we have to find an extra $500 to $600 minimum per month 
     to cover the insurance that is comparable to what we had 
     before. I have no idea how we will afford that kind of money 
     and pay our bills and mortgage each month.
       This is just one of the millions of examples of real people 
     being hurt by ObamaCare.

  This story is from Kim Curtis, a Senior Underwriter at an insurance 
company in Saint Louis, MO:

       We, the working middle class, are the ones who are being 
     hurt by this law.
       We struggle every day to make ends meet. The one bright 
     spot is that the middle sized family owned company that my 
     husband works for paid 100% of both of our health care and 
     dental premiums on a very good PPO plan. That was a huge 
     benefit and a saving grace.
       But now, because of Obamacare, we have received notice from 
     the insurance company that the plan that they currently pay 
     for does not meet the marketplace guidelines and we will no 
     longer be covered effective on January 1st, 2014. They are 
     not paying anything towards our insurance at all.
       So now we will be trying to scramble to come up with an 
     extra $500-$600 min per month to cover the insurance that is 
     comparable to the plan that we had. I have medical issues so 
     I have quite a few doctor visits and bills each year so I am 
     not cheap to cover so it may even be more than that.
       Thanks for your time and again thanks for standing up for 
     us. Someone needs to help us before we all go bankrupt and 
     lose everything we have worked so hard to build up during our 
     lifetimes.
                                  ____

     From: Kim Curtis (Kim.C[email protected])
     Received: 10/27/13
       Dear Ann, It comes as quite a shock to me on how much of an 
     impact Obamacare is having on myself and the country as a 
     whole. Let alone the fact that I feel it was NEVER really 
     explained very well to the American people let alone very 
     well thought out by law makers when this plan was put 
     together. This will further hurt our economy and drive it 
     back possibly to the brink of another recession.
       My husband had already taken over $10,000/ year cut in pay 
     a couple years ago and I at the same time took over a $20,000 
     cut in pay, but we looked at it that at least we still had 
     jobs. We struggle every day to make ends meet. The one bright 
     spot is that the middle size family owned company that my 
     husband works for paid 100% of both of our health care and 
     dental premiums on a very good PPO plan. That was a huge 
     benefit and a saving grace.
       But now due to Obamacare we have received notice from the 
     insurance company that the plan that they currently pay for 
     does not meet the ``market place'' guidelines and we will no 
     longer be covered effective on January 1st, 2014. My husband 
     approached his employer and the comment that he received is 
     that we will probably have to go out to the market place and 
     get insurance from there because they don't feel that they 
     will be able to afford the insurance that is now being 
     required by the new ``LAW''. So along with that they are NOT 
     paying anything towards our insurance AT ALL. So this will 
     now along with cuts in pay, we will be trying to scramble to 
     come up with probably around $500-$600 min per month to cover 
     the insurance that is comparable to the plan that we had. I 
     have medical issues so I do have quite a few Doctor visits 
     and bills each year so I am not cheap to cover so it may even 
     be more than that.
       I have no idea how we will be able to afford that kind of 
     money each month and pay the mortgage and other bills that we 
     have let alone be punished with a penalty if we do not have 
     insurance. That is ridiculous. You should have been able to 
     put together a plan that would BENEFIT the people not 
     PENALIZE the majority of them.
       If the ``PLAN'' is that good why did they have to make it a 
     law for everyone to participate. If it was done correctly 
     people would WANT to participate. THAT is the ``PLAN'' that 
     they should have put into place.
       Thanks for your time and again thanks for standing up for 
     us. Someone needs to help us before we all go bankrupt and 
     lose everything we have worked so hard to build up during our 
     lifetimes.

                                                   Kim Curtis,

                                               Senior Underwriter,
     CMG Mortgage Insurance Company.

                          ____________________