Even though my office is close to home, I tend to eat lunch at the various restaurants around the area. When I’m eating lunch by myself, I always have something to read – usually whatever nonfiction book I’m working on at the time. At one restaurant I almost always get the same waitress, a pleasant woman a few years older than I am, who takes an interest in whatever I happen to be reading. We’ve had some interesting, if abbreviated, discussions.
I hadn’t been there for awhile, and they have a pretty good patty melt, so that’s where I went today. After taking my order and then serving me, she said – out of the blue – “At your job, were you able to keep your health insurance?” When I said yes, she asked how big the company I worked for was. It’s about 100 people.
Turns out, her husband works for a much smaller company. She and her husband had just received a letter informing them that they were losing their company-assisted health insurance and would be moving to the Obamacare pool. The “Silver” plan that would be automatically replacing their previous insurance would cost them an extra $400 a month.
And has an $8,000 deductible.
They could, of course, decline this automatic option and go shopping for themselves.
If, of course, the web site every actually – you know – works.
“So much for being able to keep the plan we were happy with!” she said.
UPDATE: Here’s another.