�鶹Ů��

Michael Schwarz is a self-employed business owner who buys his own health insurance. Subsidized coverage through "Obamacare" offers protection from life's unpredictable changes and freedom to pursue his vocation, he says. Brett Dorsch is also self-employed and buys his own health insurance. But he gets no financial break from the Affordable Care Act. "To me, it's just been a big lie," Dorsch says, forcing him to pay more for less coverage. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/22)

Dale Marsh has not been enamored with his health insurance since the Affordable Care Act took effect. Premiums for Marsh, 53, and his wife, Tammy, rose, their deductibles grew, and they gave up access to their regular doctors to keep costs down. This year, facing monthly premiums of $1,131 — a 47 percent increase from four years before — they decided to go without coverage. “It’s useless insurance,” said Marsh, who owns a software company with Tammy, 52, in Graford, Texas. “We’re praying for the best, that neither one of us need insurance, that we don’t have to go the hospital." Yet, a new premium spike may be in store for those in their 50s and 60s. (Rau and Appleby, 2/22)

While the Affordable Care Act has brought health coverage to millions of Americans, the effects have been profound, even lifesaving, for some of those caught up in the nation's opioid-addiction crisis. In Kentucky, which has been ravaged worse than almost any other state by fentanyl, heroin and other drugs, Tyler Witten went into rehab at Medicaid's expense after the state expanded the program under a provision of the act. Until then, he had been addicted to painkillers for more than a decade. "It saved my life," he said. (Beam and Johnson, 2/22)

The generally left-leaning groups detailed county-by-county effects in an effort to get residents to put pressure on representatives at town hall meetings during this week’s congressional recess. Some lawmakers who have not scheduled meetings are discovering that gatherings have been planned in their absence. With more than $4 billion a year in direct federal funding at stake, the ripple effect of rescinding the law would kill 86,000 jobs, according to an analysis by New Jersey Policy Perspective. About 800,000 residents would lose health insurance without the ACA's Medicaid expansion and subsidies for coverage purchased on the federal exchange. Plus, 212,000 seniors who fall into Medicare’s “doughnut hole” would each lose an average $1,241 in prescription assistance. (Sapatkin, 2/21)

The Jersey Shore would lose more than $500 million a year in federal funding and 11,000 jobs if Obamacare is repealed without a replacement, according to a study released by consumer advocates on Tuesday. While replacement proposals on the table would soften the blow, they would leave New Jersey and consumers with less financial help for health care and possibly insurance policies that don't cover as much, they said. (Diamond, 2/21)

Little surprises Lynda Sutherland, who has been a licensed vocational nurse for 35 years at San Mateo Medical Center. But in the past few years, Sutherland said, she’s been surprised by what’s missing: the patients who used to return again and again to the public hospital for the same ailments. “They’re just not coming back,” she said. (Gorman, 2/22)