Bette in Spokane has some genuine pain (probably. Or maybe not...see updates)

[multiple updates, through 2/3/14]

Yes, the brief "ACA victim" story that Rep. Kathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wa) inserted in her response to the State of the Union address was cherry-picked and misleading. The pain that the ACA inflicted on the couple in question was exaggerated. But it was probably real. They are in the relatively small subset of Americans who may fare worse under the ACA than under the pre-ACA status quo.

Here is the tale that Rodgers told:

Not long ago I got a letter from Bette in Spokane, who hoped the President’s health care law would save her money – but found out instead that her premiums were going up nearly $700 a month.

Reporter David Wasson of the Spokesman-Review tracked Bette down and learned that she is hostile to the ACA ("I wouldn't go on that Obama website at all") and did not check out her options on the exchange. The $700 difference was between the plan she and her husband carried in 2013 and the plan their insurance company offered in replacement. Here are the basics: