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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

Best wishes to Molly for a speedy recovery and to feel better soon.

Thank goodness she is famous, even if lesser known by the mainstream and friends can appeal to help her.

For those that think the ACA (obamacare) will solve this after January, nope.

A full half of the states [1] have denied medicaid expansion (because the supreme court ruled they could turn it down) which means if you fall into the gap where you "make too much money" ($12k - $16k) you cannot get health insurance.

So if you got ill but were trying to work part time to stay in your home/pay rent, you will probably make too much to get health insurance!

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/02/us/uninsured-a...

This is probably going to cause "healthcare migration" where people who get ill have to move to get assistance if they have some income but not enough.

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> Thank goodness she is famous, even if lesser known by the mainstream and friends can appeal to help her.

Healthcare in the US sucks, no doubt. But I'd say she's not getting support just because she's famous, which sounds cynical to me. Personally, I feel a great deal of gratitude toward her. Like others in the thread, her books helped me start my career. So it's not just about being famous - she's spent her life helping other people and now people want to help her back.

You are right, that is definitely a better way to put it and what I actually meant.

I didn't mean famous like just because her name is recognizable, I meant famous for good reasons (like the word "famous" is actually supposed to mean, vs infamous).

If you make less than (I believe its) 4x federal level of poverty in your area you are eligible for subsidies on your health insurance via the marketplace. The issue you are pointing out is where you make too much to qualify for your state's medicare plan but not enough to be able to pay for private insurance even with subsidies.

So its not that you make "too much" to get health insurance, but you make too much to get free health insurance but too little to live off of and pay for private health insurance.

"subsidies" is the new fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". That's what it is, and there's no such thing as "free health insurance" only taxpayer-provided health insurance.

Pure pedantry. Nobody is under the illusion that doctors and nurses work for free. When people say "free" they mean "free for the user at the point of service", which is a bit of a mouthful.

Exactly zero people believe that the health care doesn't have to be paid for by someone at some point. This is a straw man.

Also, "tax breaks" is the fancy term for "welfare" or "handouts". See, I can do meaningless feel-good rhetoric! Let's debate these issues at their core, not resort to meaningless weasel words.

Apparently there is free wars though. That money seems to be always available.

They should use that magic war money to actually help people.

It is worse than that in states that decided not to expand Medicaid. Subsidies are available for people who make 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level. The Medicaid expansion was supposed to cover people up 138% the federal poverty level, but In states without Medicaid expansion, there are people who aren't eligible for Medicaid under old rules and aren't eligible for subsidy because they make less than 100% of poverty level.

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