April 7, 2011, - 6:28 pm
Really? Whining NFL Millionaires Latest ObamaCare Entitlement Class
You know the downtrodden, poor, and less fortunate, whom Obamacare was allegedly going to help? Think again. It’s NFL multi-millionaires who are taking advantage and going on their parents insurance plans! Incredible. Current NFL players (and some potential draft picks) are whining that they have to pay for their own health insurance and are taking advantage of the Obama provision allowing them to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26.
Yup, while the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet in this economy, locked out current NFL players and draft multi-millionaires in waiting are bitching about how they can’t afford health insurance and applauding Obamacare .
PUH-LEEZE. As a recovering former sports agent, I can tell you none of these guys–even the guys up for the NFL draft who won’t get signed until the lockout ends–is starving or hard up to pay for a doctor’s appointment and accompanying prescriptions. Once their college eligibility is up, prospective NFL draftees are showered with money. Their agents–and those seeking to become their agents–give them “loans,” pay-offs, and other lucre. Even the small time guy who will go in the last round of the draft, later this month, isn’t hurting for funds. Not even close.
Among those locked out who went back on his parents’ health insurance plan is Chicago Bears lineman Craig Steltz, who made $740,907 in 208, $390,20o in 2009, and $470,000 in 2010. I’m thinking I need to come up with a new phrase for NFL slacker millionaires like him: Obamacare Slackionaire.
The same goes for Keenan Lewis, a Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback, who made $310,000 in 2009 and $395,000 in 2010. Is this really a person who should be allowed to remain on his parents’ health insurance policy? Can he really not afford to go it on his own? Do you really need to pay higher premiums, so his parents can pay lower ones for him versus what he’d have to pay on his own individual health plan?
Also, if they–especially the NFL draft candidates–are so broke, why not do what millions of other jobless, poor Americans are doing: look for a job. Apparently, it’s beneath these spoiled prima donnas to say, “Would you like fries with that?” or work in a stock room or on a construction job for even a few months. Better to live off their parents, instead, and higher health insurance prices for everyone to make up for this. Who knew that coddled former college football players would be America’s newest entitlement class?
Others hope an agreement can be reached soon, so they won’t become a burden on their parents. After being drafted in the third round, Keenan Lewis and [Chicago Bears player Craig] Steltz figured their days of leaning on their parents for support were over.
However, the lockout also ended the players’ medical benefits.
Under the federal law known as COBRA, players can continue existing medical coverage for themselves and their families for up to 18 months, but it’s expensive. A new federal health care law allows those who are 26 years old and younger to return to their parents’ health insurance.
“I’m 24, so I got lucky,” Steltz said. “All this health insurance stuff came around, and I was scrambling about what to do. They sent us COBRA. And out of the blue, someone reminded me that ‘Man, you are 24; you can get on your parents’ insurance.’
“I said, ‘Man, this is awesome. I’m a professional athlete and I am getting on my parent’s insurance.’ I got lucky on that, but some of the guys have families and children, and they are having to pay for their own health insurance now. It’s just the little small things that you are having to pick up now in this uncertainty that you wouldn’t have had to worry about before.”
Added Keenan Lewis, another former Walker player: “It’s scary not to have insurance.”
It’s scary not to have a brain or common sense to go out and find another way of making a living until the NFL lockout is over.
But then we knew that about NFL players and draftees, who ain’t exactly Einstein and are apparently too high and mighty to assume the position of Joe Sixpack for a few months.
Yup, it’s “degrading” to live like the little people when you expect to be rolling in Armani and expensive male skin moisturizers.
Tags: Craig Steltz, draft picks, Keenan Lewis, millionaires, NFL, NFL Lockout, obamacare, Obamacare Slackionaires
Obamacare for millionaires.
Now that’s a phrase that will go over well with most folks.
NOT!!!
NormanF on April 7, 2011 at 7:31 pm