Meet Louisa McQueeney, the Media's Favorite ObamaCare Beneficiary
The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff tells the story of Louisa McQueeney, a 53 year-woman from South Florida who works for a company that ships gift baskets full of oranges to the continental U.S. and Canada. McQueeney is a sort of poster child for the many benefits of ObamaCare, because at this point she's apparently used almost all of them:
Over the past two years, McQueeney has taken advantage of just about every Obamacare benefit she can get her hands on.
Free preventive care? She got that with her annual well-care visit. The extension of family coverage for young adults? Her 22-year-old daughter, a recent college graduate, uses that to stay on her plan.
Then there's the small-business tax credit that two-thirds of businesses don't even know about. McQueeney used that to net Palm Beach Groves, the company where she's the general manager, $7,400 in savings. Another health law rebate, for just over $1,500, has brought her haul to $9,000.
I wondered if there might be more information about how McQueeney might have found out about all these benefits, so I spent a little bit of time Googling her. And although the Post item is titled "Meet the woman who has used (almost) every Obamacare benefit," it turns out that lots of people already have already had the opportunity to do so: McQueeney has been beating the drum in support of ObamaCare's benefits for months.
In June, McQueeney wrote an op-ed in support of ObamaCare in the Miami Herald. She's also been quoted talking up the law's benefits to multiple media outlets, including NPR, CNBC, and The Palm Beach Post. McQueeney appears to have favored an ObamaCare-style health care overhaul for a while: Three years ago, while the law was still working its way through the legislative process, she signed a Change.org petition encouraging Congress to "keep health reform moving forward."
Kliff describes McQueeney as "a clearly enthusiastic supporter of the Affordable Care Act," and McQueeney provides plenty of zippy quotes to back up this assessment. She's certainly had enough practice.
Indeed, McQueeney is such an enthusiastic supporter of the Affordable Care Care that she previously agreed to talk up how ObamaCare has helped her in a video produced by HealthCare.gov, a website run by the Obama administration devoted to explaining how the law works and who it benefits. The White House liked McQueeney's story so much that last week they shared the HealthCare.gov video on The White House blog.