Obama proposes health care fix

[ProSense]

Obama proposes health care fix

By Steve Benen

A variety of congressional Democrats told the White House yesterday that they don’t want to support Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) “Keep Your Health Plan Act,” but they want something to address the cancelations issue. Either the White House gives them an alternative or Dems will splinter further.

Right on cue, President Obama announced his own regulatory fix, intended to help the sliver of the population adversely affected through the individual market. Jonathan Cohn explains how the policy “puts some rhetorical pressure on insurers to reconsider cancellations.”

Insurers already had the right to extend existing insurance plans, for up to one year, even if those plans did not comply with Obamacare regulations. But they had to do so by the end of December – even if an insurance plan was scheduled to expire later next year. Under the new guidance the Administration is issuing on Thursday, plans can renew expiring plans at any time in calendar year 2014. Not all plans expire on December 31. A decent-sized group expires in July, for example. This is a chance for insurers to give folks on those plans an extra year before adjusting to the new insurance market.

The unknown here is whether insurers will revisit and renew policies they already cancelled.

Ezra Klein added that under Obama’s approach, insurers that extend these existing policies will have to send consumers letters explaining why the plans fall short of Affordable Care Act standards, and what options may be available through exchange marketplaces. “This doesn’t really ensure anyone can actually keep their plan – which means it also doesn’t affect premiums in the exchanges,” Ezra said. “But it makes it easier for Democrats to blame insurers for canceling these plans.”...yesterday it was congressional Democrats running around with their hair on fire, but today’s it’s insurers who are furious. There’s a risk in making insurance companies unhappy at this point, but for the White House, they’re not the ones Obama is worried about most right now.

As for the politics, the president and his team are probably pleased by the reactions from lawmakers. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who’s led the charge for changes in the Senate, is “encouraged” by the Obama fix, and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) “applauded” Obama’s announcement, endorsing the idea of pushing the onus onto insurers.

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http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-proposes-health-care-fix

I hope those who got cancellations letters flock to the exchanges for better policies after the proposal.

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[Laelth]

2. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[William769]

3. Kick & highly recommended.

[sheshe2]

4. Kick! n/t

[Mass]

5. I hope so. Anyway, the fix and the Upton bill will not help. Insurance companies do

not want to keep these contracts anyway. They prefer to get the exchange contracts where they can earn more on healthy younger people.

The Landrieu bill would work barely better, but forcing the insurance to either offer to reissue all contracts or none, but it is just a fix on a problem who could have been treated better if Congresspeople had actually tried to help customers.

Sadly, the GOP and the media have avoided to tell the truth and people have been uselessly frightened and angered.

By the way, the GOP is lying when it says their bill will allow people to keep their insurance. It will not. When is somebody starting to say that.

[ProSense]

6. How many insurance companies are going to do this:

"send consumers letters explaining why the plans fall short of Affordable Care Act standards, and what options may be available through exchange marketplaces."

That's from the OP.

To your point about the bills, it's likely they aren't going to get a vote.

<...>

At this point, the executive fix is the only game in town, which isn't a bad thing politically, because it does put the onus back on insurance companies for cancellations. And the larger issue of getting the website functioning fully is still the most important thing the administration can do. Because when it's functioning, and when people can start getting that good, affordable health care the law promises, much of this will (eventually) be forgotten.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/14/1255640/-Congress-reacts-to-administration-insurance-cancellation-nbsp-fix

[Mass]

7. None. They are not going to reinstate the contracts, so they wont send the letters.

Most of these companies have already moved on.

Concerning the bills, I agree with you.