Cancer Patient in Koch Brothers Ad Defends Claims: ‘Obamacare Turned My Life into Nightmare’

Julie Boonstra –  the Dexter, MI, cancer patient whose claims she might die because Obamacare made her prescriptions unaffordable landed her in a political firestorm after independent fact-checkers disputed the Koch Brothers-backed ad – says she’s not lying.

Boonstra is defending herself in a letter to the editor published Thursday by The Detroit News. (Excerpts below.)

The ad she’s featured in targets 14th District Democratic Congressman Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, who voted for Obamacare and is now running for an open U.S. Senate seat, and is part of a $30 million ad buy by Americans for Prosperity, backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch. 

The ad is part of the super-PAC’s  strategy to make the Affordable Care Act an issue that can be used against Democrats in competitive Senate races.

Independent fact checkers who researched the claims determined that Boonstra would potentially save about $1,000 a year in insurance costs under Obamacare.

An excerpt from the letter follows:

“I recently told my story in Michigan with the help of a group called Americans for Prosperity. Now people are attacking me and calling me a liar. Some believe that I can afford the insurance because the annual premiums will be lower.

“Those people choose to ignore the problems inherent with high out-of-pocket limits and prescriptions that aren’t covered for a person like me.

“My new plan could mean wildly fluctuating and front-loaded costs in the first few months of the year. I chose my old plan — the one that Obamacare canceled — specifically so I could budget for the same monthly costs with certainty.

“I have reached out to Congressman Gary Peters for help since he is running for a Senate seat for Michigan.

“He refuses to speak to me.

“Instead of trying to help me, Congressman Peters tried to silence me. His Washington attorneys have attempted to intimidate television stations airing my story.

“I actually went to his house when I learned of this to ask him to help me navigate the Obamacare law, a law he helped pass. He didn’t answer, so I left him a note asking him to contact me.

“Then Sen. Harry Reid said — on the U.S. Senate floor, no less — that my story is a lie.

I never asked for this. Obamacare has turned my life into a nightmare.”