James Donnell, Who Worked at the Showboat, Said, “There’s nothing in Atlantic City but the casinos.”
Hundreds of former casino workers in Atlantic City have turned to Obamacare to meet their needs in the wake of their job loss. In September, three different Atlantic City casinos have closed, putting 8,000 casino workers out of a job.
In the past, such a wave of lay-offs put families in jeopardy of major financial debts, because they could not afford health care at just the time when their families faced the most stress and deprivation. Here in 2014, Obamacare offers out-of-work citizens hope and protection from one-sided health insurance plans.
Revel Casino Steward: Ronnie Downing
Bloomberg News was one of the publications which covered the story, focusing on ex-Revel Hotel employee Ronnie Dowling. Before Dowling worked at Revel setting up the banquet hall, he was a member of the United States Air Force. Mr. Downing makes a good example, because of his courageous service in the U.S. military. Yet he’s an example of a much wider situation.
On September 10, a job fair was held in Atlantic City and 2,500 potential employees signed up. Among those twenty-five hundred workers, 400 of them asked about enrolling in health coverage under terms of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The signups at the job fair underscores the potential the law has as a safety-net for out-of-work citizens.
How the Old System Worked
Under the old system, workers shown the pink slip had one of three unsavory options. One, they could pay high prices on the temporary insurance offered. Two, they could try to find affordable private coverage and take their chances with unrealistic exemptions. Three, they could try to save money by going without insurance.
The third option was often the one chosen by family heads who were conserving money during a job search, but it was a decision fraught with risks. If a person was single, that was likely to be their option, because they were presumably younger and could take the risks. If a person had a family, then their risks were much greater, because it multiplied the number of people who were going without insurance, and because children haven’t built up the immune system adults have. Any parent knows how many doctors visits their young ones need.
Spiraling Debts When Emergencies Happened
Under those circumstances, parents were faced with a decision to see to their children’s needs and see the bills pile up, or only visit the doctor in case of emergencies. When those emergencies came, a family could find itself faced with mounting debts from uninsured medical bills. In a system rife with the kind of corruption that was the only explanation for $60 paper hospital gowns, debts mounted quickly.
How Obamacare Helps
In the Obamacare era, workers can enroll with more affordable health care plans in which the insurers cannot deny them, due to pre-existing medical conditions. For those families which cannot afford the costs, government subsidies help alleviate some of the financial burden. In the end, everyone pays what they can, and hospitals are not laden with huge losses due to uninsured costs.
Without such costs, hospitals and insurance companies don’t have to use the kind of creative accounting which secretly puts the cost on every other patient (with $60 hospital gowns and the like), so some of the graft is taken out of the system. With so much uncertainty taken out of the system, Obamacare is a win for everyone.
New Jersey Citizen Action Lauds New Laws
That’s how the system is supposed to work, anyway. Maura Collinsgru, a health care advocate for New Jersey Citizen Action, says that’s how the system works at present. She says that people across the nation, especially those affected by job losses, are beginning to see the differences.
Speaking of the Atlantic City workers at the September 10 job fair, Collinsgru said, “It opens up a new opportunity for them that never existed before. This is just a snapshot at a larger scale of what happens every day across the country. Individuals who lose their jobs can now have an opportunity to get coverage not only for themselves but for their families.”
Army Veteran Praises Obamacare
Ronnie Downing says that’s what he’s finding. Downing served 15 years in the USAF. After that, he worked for years in Atlantic City casinos. When Revel Casino opened in 2012, Downing became a steward at the casino. Revel Casino was a $2.4 billion hotel, casino, and resort. It was designed to bring destination tourists and conventions, but when the casino closed early this September, Ronnie Downing lost his job. He found that Obamacare offered a better way than the last time he was looking for a job.
Downing talked to Bloomberg in an interview at the job fair. When asked about the new health care system, Downing replied by saying Obamacare, “defines directly what the government’s role is. The government should lead you in the right direction and be there to catch you in case corporations don’t follow through.“
