But Will the Affordable Care Act Get Rid of $15K Medical Bills?

Is it just me or are you still in shock over yesterday's Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act? I bet Hippocrates is doing the wop up in heaven. But..the whole thing really has me wondering if a check from Rush Limbaugh to John Roberts got lost in the mail or something. C'mon, you KNOW you thought that too.

I've heard that some particularly astute "ObamaCare" haters--let's just all adopt the term and use it in a positive way (just like some folks say they use the n-word as a term of affection)--have declared they're moving to Canada in protest. Because, you know, they've heard that in Canada, hospitals are super hardcore about denying medical treatment to people with blood gushing from their eyeballs and no insurance.

Yup, according to these haters, in Canada everybody is an individual and takes individual responsibility for their health. The haters have heard that even if a millionaire offers to help them pay for medical care, Canadians will reply--in a Tiny Tim voice, of course--, "Please, good sir. Let me die here on the sidewalk outside of the hospital because I did not have a job that provided health insurance."

I say, go on, move to Canada! Move to Saskatchewan and start a colony. Just don't call me crying when you discover the truth about those shady Canadians!

Of course, Mitt Romney once again forgot about all that awesome healthcare reform he helped shepherd in as governor of Massachusetts and declared that on his first day in office as president, "I will act to repeal Obamacare."

He needs more people. Does he not know how bad it looks to be a billionaire trying to take greater access to healthcare away from Americans? Good luck with that, homie.

What I really want to know is what the ACA will do to keep folks from getting those shoot-me-now kinds of medical bills. The kind that make you want to just fling yourself to the floor and stab a pillow. For example, when my now 8-year-old was just a couple of weeks old, I received a sparkly envelope from the hospital, asking me to pay $15,000 for the delivery. I quickly did a hell-to-the-no and called their billing office. They told me they'd already sent the bill to my health insurance company and the portion that the company would pay had already been applied. I think the woman I was speaking to then said, "Would you like to pay over the phone right now?'

After a moment of maniacal laughter, I did the next best thing: I threeway-called the hospital and the insurance company so we could all be on the phone at the same time and work it out. Nearly 30 minutes later, that $15,000 had been dropped down to a under $1K and I was doing my How Ya Like Me Now? dance...until I realized that I didn't have that kind of money either.

So, does the ACA fix the insane prices or not? Not that I'm saying that having a baby should be the same price as a K-Mart Blue Light Special but...inquiring minds want to know. And, if the ACA doesn't fix that, someone ask President Obama if he can handle that in his second term.