University of Michigan Grad’s Claim Obamacare ‘Raped My Future’ Rings Hollow

Ashley Dionne, a 26-year-old graduate from the University of Michigan has become the new face of Obamacare hate after posting a letter to conservative radio host Dennis Prager’s Facebook page Monday.

Conservative media outlets such as the Blaze and Rush Limbaugh have been describing the letter as going viral, though it gained less than 500 likes and fewer than 100 comments.

The letter expounds about the job market and economy. Dionne claims to have, ?watched as children with GEDs and high school diploma’s took the low-paying jobs,? for which she applied; she also claimed to have been told repeatedly that she, ?was too educated.? In light of seeing individuals with GEDs receiving jobs she was seeking and being told she was ?too educated,? Dionne decided to return to school to receive a second degree.

After earning her second degree in 2012 from Baker College, she found employment at a gym working 32 hours a week for eight dollars an hour. Though she laments:

?I’m unable to find a second job at this time.?

The final few sentences focus on her claims against the Affordable Care Act. Dionne points out her preexisting conditions:

?I have asthma, ulcers and mild cerebral palsy.?

These did not keep her from being covered under her own insurance which she claims costs her $75 per month, though.

Her assertion is this:

?Obamacare takes my monthly rate from $75 a month for full coverage on my ?Young Adult Plan? to $319 a month. After $6,000 in deductibles, of course. I am the poor, the working poor, and I can’t afford to support myself, let alone older generations and people not willing to work at all.?

However, the facts in her letter seem to disprove the validity of her claim.

The cost of insurance is dependent on the amount of money you make. Though Dionne doesn’t identify which company is covering her, she does give enough information in her letter to use the Kaiser Family Foundation calculator.

Working 32 hours a week for $8 an hour means that Donnie’s cost is estimated at $266 per year. She would also qualify for $2,286 in government tax credit?90% of the overall premium.

The inspiration for Dionne’s letter was Chad Henderson, the fake Obamacare enrollee. Dionne said:

?The phony Obamacare signup poster boy made me want to send a message about how Obamacare is really affecting people. This law has raped my future.It will keep me and kids my age from having a future at all. This is the real face of Obamacare and it isn’t pretty.?

But given that her muse for the letter was the phony Obamacare signup poster boy, and in light of the information from the Kaiser Family Foundation, how real is this claim against the ACA?

Edited/Published by: SB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dionne’s Tumblr page suggests that she isn’t interested in government aid. ?Just because I qualify for government aid doesn’t mean I want it,? she writes, ?I’m able-bodied, educated, and I have work experience. I want to work. I’m an Objectivist. I don’t want government aid. This is America. I shouldn’t have to have it to live when I’m perfectly able to work.?

In the days since the ACA marketplaces opened a Tumblr campaign has been going viral?I am Obamacare.

R.E. has been a contributor for the UNCW SeaHawk-- a campus newspaper. An Alumni of the University of North Carolina, he currently lives in Jacksonville, FL with his wife and daughter.