(Breitbart) California Obamacare enrollees are struggling to find doctors who accept their newly purchased health insurance plans.
UCSF Dr. Kevin Grumbach calls the phenomenon “medical homelessness.”
CBS San Francisco says that many of the health care clinics for low-income individuals that helped people enroll in Obamacare are now seeing those same people “coming back to the clinic begging for help.”
“They’re coming back to us now and saying, ‘I can’t find a doctor,'” Rotacare clinic staffer Mirella Nguyen told CBS San Francisco. “What good is coverage if you can’t use it?”
The problem stems from Obamacare’s “narrow networks” – extreme restrictions on access to doctors and hospitals in an effort to cut costs.
California single mother of two Thinn Ong experienced the pain of Obamacare’s narrow networks when she realized that her $200-a-month Obamacare plan is not accepted by many of the doctors in her area.
“Yeah, I sign it. I got it. But where’s my doctor? Who’s my doctor? I don’t know,” said a frustrated Ong.
CBS San Francisco reports that “Experts said the magnitude of the problem is growing, and will soon be felt by all Californians.”
Breitbart News contributor Scot Vorse experienced the reality of Obamacare’s narrow networks when he discovered that the closest dentist who accepted the required dental plan he was forced to purchase for his children was over 100 miles away.
Californians are not the only ones coming to terms with the reality of Obamacare’s narrow networks. In Staten Island, New York, Margaret Figueroa, who suffers from a neurological disease that has required four brain surgeries, says her Obamacare plan denied vital medications and dropped all her doctors. Figueroa’s congressman, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), said he’s already received similar complaints from at least a dozen of his constituents.
Concerns that Obamacare’s narrow networks would spawn a medical homelessness crisis have been building for months. The Washington Post warned in January that “Obamacare’s narrow networks are going to make people furious.”
Obamacare’s narrow networks crisis comes as vulnerable Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves from the president’s unpopular health care program. On Saturday, theNew York Times reported that Obamacare has Democrats “running from it rather than on it.” Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) said last week that Obamacare will cost Democrats dearly in the Nov. 4 midterm elections.
“We will lose seats in the House,” said Lynch. “And I think we may lose the Senate. I think that’s a possibility if things continue to go the way they have been… primarily because of health care.”
