Julie Boonstra Archives

Julie Boonstra Could Save Thousands with Obamacare

Julie Boonstra, has been used by Republicans to try to prove that Obamacare will literally kill people. However, claims that she would lose coverage and risk her life as a result have been debunked.

Boonstra, 49, who suffers from leukemia, is featured prominently in the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity ads. She told a heartbreaking tale of Obamacare canceling her insurance plan and lamenting that her new one was too expensive.

“If I do not receive my medication, I will die,” Boonstra says in the ad. “I feel lied to.”

When journalists looked into her claim, Boonstra identified the new plan she chose on the Obamacare exchanges: a so-called “gold” plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, per the Detroit News.

Her old plan cost $1,100 per month, which adds up to $13,200 a year in premiums alone — before co-pays, out-of-pocket costs and drug expenses.

Her new plan costs $571 per month, which adds up to $6,852 per year. Her out-of-pocket costs are maxed at $5,100, which means a maximum cost of $11,952 per year. That means her new plan cannot cost her more for treatment than her new plan.

In other words, Boonstra would save at least $1,248 under Obamacare.

When the Detroit News told her this, Boonstra was in disbelief, saying it “can’t be true.”

“I personally do not believe that,” she told the paper.

Woman in Debunked Obamacare Story Speaks to Fox

The subject of the latest debunked Obamacare horror story is finally talking, and of course it’s to Fox News.

Julie Boonstra is a Michigan resident with leukemia, and she appeared in an Americans For Prosperity ad against Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Gary Peters, saying that Obamacare made her cancer treatment unaffordable because of out of pocket spending. Subsequent fact checking, though, found that her monthly premium payments were essentially cut in half, and the limits the law imposes on out of pocket expenses means that at worse, she’d break even between those costs and her premium saving.

The ad also implied she lost access to her doctor, though fact checking determined that her doctor is included in the plan she picked on the exchange.
So with no real basis to the story she presented in the ad, how does Boonstra respond? The only way she can, the way Republicans always go, playing the victim.

“They’re not scaring me. Cancer scares me,” she said. “I battle cancer every day. They’re not going to intimidate me.” […]
“Under my old policy, I knew what I could afford every single month because I wasn’t hit with extra charges. Now I don’t know what I have to pay month to month,” she said. “Leukemia tests are extremely expensive.”

Just to set the record straight, pointing out factual inconsistencies is not intimidation. No one is saying that Boonstra isn’t experiencing real angst over having to change health insurance in the middle of her fight with cancer. No one is diminishing her fight with cancer, they’re just pointing out some basic truths which show that her story just doesn’t add up.

And as Brian Beutler points out, if the Koch brothers achieved what they’re trying to with this and other ads—repeal—then she would really become a victim. The protections she now has under this law—to never be kicked off her health insurance plan, to never have to worry about having health coverage because of her leukemia, having her annual out of pocket expenses limited, and never having to worry about reaching an annual or lifetime cap where her coverage is just cut off—would be gone if the campaign she’s participating in succeeds. Which is, yes, insane.

If Boonstra is a victim, she’s the willing victim of the Koch brothers and AFP who would ultimately throw her to the wolves. But if she hates the law that much, fine, whatever. What she’s doing, though, jeopardizes every other cancer patient in the nation.

h/t Daily Kos