As a libertarian, I am vehemently opposed to government control of my life. I wrote about how the Affordable Care Act was a violation of our Constitutional rights in my book Blessed Are They That Hunger a full 2 years before it was implemented. I discussed just two aspects of the law that would hamper our freedom as Americans. The fact that the government would make it illegal to be uninsured and the fact that religious organizations would be forced to provide birth control in violation of the tenets of their faith were clear violations of our religious and personal freedoms as protected by the Constitution.

Since its implementation both of these issues have been bandied about by the media and there have been a multitude of court cases brought on by religious based organizations and corporations refusing to comply with the law.

There are more insidious ramifications of the ACA-like appointed committees determining who will receive certain procedures-(or as they have been termed “death squads”) that have not even come to light yet, but will as the “roll out” continues.

Because of these issues, I opted to avoid the “exchange” when my insurance was cancelled because it did not meet the ACA requirements. I opted to “keep my Insurance” and stay out of the ACA exchange in my state. This meant paying more than double the premium for a plan that would give me comparable coverage that would allow me to “keep my doctor”.

I bit the bullet and tightened my belt to accommodate the large insurance premium that I was forced to pay. Everything was fine, until I had an auto accident in July and had to shell out a $500 deductible for my car. The budget just couldn’t handle that plus my nearly $500 per month health insurance premium. I got behind and was one day late on paying my premium. (I was not one day late really, I paid it on the due date, but they applied it a day later and my insurance was cancelled.)

Once it was cancelled, I could not re-enroll until November, for insurance that would not be effective until January 2015. So now, thanks to the ACA, I- a person who was insured before the ACA -was suddenly, uninsured. Hey, wait a minute- wasn’t Obamacare supposed to get more people insured?

The only option left for me, other than wait out the months until I could re-enroll was to get on a medical program designed for Christians who want to opt out of the ACA on moral grounds. It was about $150 per month less than I was paying with my previous coverage. It did not include free preventative care and I was due for my annual check up to renew my prescription meds, so once again I was paying more out of pocket. There is nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act for me.

After the findings from my annual exam, my doctor wanted me to see three different specialists. Since my new insurance is really more for catastrophic coverage, that meant more expenses for me. I could imagine the bills piling up.

I was afraid if I went back to my old plan I would end up uninsured again because of the exorbitant premiums and my current plan wasn’t cutting it so finally, despite my apprehensions, I had to apply for coverage under the exchange.

Because of the deductions in my business, my taxable income put me in a subsidized coverage. Now I am totally at the mercy of the US government thanks to the ACA. I have been put in the position to be a dependent of the State when I was perfectly able to take care of my own insurance before the ACA mucked everything up.

It seems that this law is really meant to force Americans into a socialized health care system whether they want to or not because only the wealthy can afford to be out of the system. This makes us under government control in the most vulnerable part of our life-our physical health and wellbeing. If it was a benevolent government concerned with the best for its people, that would be ok, however it is becoming increasingly clear as each of our freedoms gets taken away from this administration (as well as our privacy) that this is not a government that we can entrust our very lives to. Grrrrrr!

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