Be still my beating heart: Obamacare bites the hands of New York intelligensia

This would be funny, except that it should have been predictable:

Many in New York’s professional and cultural elite have long supported President Obama’s health care plan. But now, to their surprise, thousands of writers, opera singers, music teachers, photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.

Weep for me with this attorney:

“I couldn’t sleep because of it,” said Barbara Meinwald, a solo practitioner lawyer in Manhattan. 

Ms. Meinwald, 61, has been paying $10,000 a year for her insurance through the New York City Bar.  A broker told her that a new temporary plan with fewer doctors would cost $5,000 more, after factoring in the cost of her medications.

Of course dear Barbara couldn't be expected to go through the insurance exchanges like the common folk:

Ms. Meinwald also looked on the state’s health insurance exchange. But she said she found that those plans did not have a good choice of doctors, and that it was hard to even find out who the doctors were, and which hospitals were covered. “It’s like you’re blindfolded and you’re told that you have to buy something,” she said.

And how many far-sighted geniuses believed that this sweeping systemic change would not affect them?

The people affected include not just writers, artists, doctors and the like, but also independent tradespeople, like home builders or carpenters, who work on their own. 

Some have received notices already; others, whose plans have not yet expired, will soon receive letters in the mail. It is unclear exactly how many New Yorkers are affected; according to state health officials, as many as 400,000 independent practitioners get health insurance through job-related group plans...

These were pretty much all people who agreed several years ago with Nancy Pelosi that we'd just have to pass the damn thing to find out what was in it.  Unfortunately, after the Democrats passed it, apparently none of New York's writers, artists, doctors, lawyers, homebuilders, or contractors could be bothered to take the time to discover that hidden deeply somewhere in there was the message from the Obama administration:  "You're screwed, buddy, and I'm not up for election again."

You think I'm kidding?  Back to dear Barbara:

It is not lost on many of the professionals that they are exactly the sort of people — liberal, concerned with social justice — who supported the Obama health plan in the first place. Ms. Meinwald, the lawyer, said she was a lifelong Democrat who still supported better health care for all, but had she known what was in store for her, she would have voted for Mitt Romney.