Thread: OBAMA’S “FIX” FOR INSURANCE CANCELLATIONS IS NOT GOING OVER WELL

OBAMA’S “FIX” FOR INSURANCE CANCELLATIONS IS NOT GOING OVER WELL



By: John Hayward
11/14/2013 05:33 PM

While President Obama was making everyone stand around waiting for his characteristically tardy appearance at the White House today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was giving a pre-buttal to the proposed insurance cancellation “fix.” Boehner said it’s clear the White House cannot be trusted, ran through the litany of broken ObamaCare promises, mused on the dangers of forcing the American people to use a web system with severe security flaws… and said there was “no way an administrative fix is both legal and effective.”



It’s good to see the Republicans stand up for the rule of law, which seemed like a bit of a dead letter after the last time Obama violated the Constitution to rewrite his “signature achievement” on the fly.
Sarah Kliff at the Washington Post was struck by how quickly the backlash to Obama’s “fix” began:

It took about three hours exactly for states to start pushing back against President Obama’s request that regulators allow insurance plans to offer current products in 2014.
Washington state insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler has announced that he will not allow insurance companies to do so.
“In the interest of keeping the consumer protections we have enacted and ensuring that we keep health insurance costs down for all consumers, we are staying the course,” he said in a statement moments ago. “We will not be allowing insurance companies to extend their policies. I believe this is in the best interest of the health insurance market in Washington.”

According to Kliff, Commissioner Kriedler is “one of the most liberal regulators” in the business… and his rejection of Obama’s “fix” is actually “a full-throated defense of the Affordable Care Act.” He’s not going to let that weasel Barack Obama undermine the noble and beautiful law the great Barack Obama passed!
Judging by this afternoon’s statement from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, there will be resistance from coast to coast:

For three years, state insurance regulators have been working to adapt to the Affordable Care Act in a way that best meets the needs of consumers in each state. We have been particularly concerned about the way the reforms would impact premiums, the solvency of insurance companies, and the overall health of the marketplace. The NAIC has been clear from the beginning that allowing insurers to have different rules for different policies would be detrimental to the overall market and result in higher premiums.
We have expressed these concerns with the Administration and are concerned by the President’s announcement today that the federal government would use its “enforcement discretion” to delay enforcement of the ACA’s market reforms in 2014 for plans that are currently in effect. This decision continues different rules for different policies and threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond.
In addition, it is unclear how, as a practical matter, the changes proposed today by the President can be put into effect. In many states, cancellation notices have already gone out to policyholders and rates and plans have already been approved for 2014. Changing the rules through administrative action at this late date creates uncertainty and may not address the underlying issues. We look forward to learning more details of this policy change and about how the administration proposes that regulators and insurers make this work for all consumers.

The insurance commissioner for Kansas told the Washington Post the situation is “just a big mess right now… I don’t know what to tell people.” Insurance consultant Robert Lazewski sent this note out to his clients:

This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer systems for policies, rates, and eligibility, send notices to the policyholders via US Mail, send a very complex letter that describes just what the differences are between specific policies and Obamacare compliant plans, ask the consumer for their decision — and give them a reasonable time to make that decision — and then enter those decisions back into their systems without creating massive billing, claim payment, and provider eligibility list mistakes.
All by January 1.

The New Jersey Association of Health Underwriters told David Steinberg of PJ Media, “This is a new insanity.”

I do not know how the insurance carriers and federal government are going to be dealing with this. First, many states require a 60-day notice of a change in plan or a cancellation. It’s November 15! How can they comply with this new element of federal law, and with their state laws?
Second, do they really think carriers are going to be willing to recreate the old plans, while also being mandated to offer the new ones that comply with the exchanges? I have a large number of clients, small to medium-sized businesses, who would much rather renew their old policies on 12/1 than sign up with the newly mandated exchange policies. Everyone is going to want the old ones! You really expect the insurance carriers to willingly deal with the financial loss and legal headaches of switching back?
It is going to be very difficult for carriers to honor this.

And it’s going to be very difficult for Obama to keep blaming his failures on them.


http://www.humanevents.com/2013/11/1...ing-over-well/

The ObamaCare nightmare of LIES and deceit continues

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Diane Sori

Oh the shame of it all as one day after the Obama administration announced that only 26,794 people had enrolled in ObamaCare, in a calculatingly and vicious move against the American people…a move done solely to try and salvage the 2014 elections for the Democrats…Barack HUSSEIN Obama, looking defeated and dejected, did what he does best as he again LIED and deceived the American people at yesterday’s press conference.

You know what press conference…the one he was over a half hour late to.
Facing a bi-partisan revolt over ObamaCare…his now on life support signature piece of legislation …with its forced cancellation of five million private insurance policies that people were happy with…Obama offered an administrative fix instead of a legislative fix that would have allowed Republican input and a possible overturn of ObamaCare as some Democrats…especially those up for re-election in 2014…are now outwardly siding with the Republican’s belief that ObamaCare has fundamental flaws that cannot be fixed.
So bowing to pressure from five million outraged former policy holders and panicky Democrats, Obama began his bloviations but only after sidetracking with talk about the Philippine disaster… which he should have talked about when it first happened…Obama said towards the beginning of his ObamaCare statement something that should send chills down every American’s spines and I quote, “If you had plans that you liked before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, even if those policies had changes, and if people bought plans they liked after the Affordable Care Act went into effect, you can keep those plans into 2014.”
Let me repeat that statement again and pay close attention to the last seven words, “If you had plans that you liked before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, even if those policies had changes, and if people bought plans they liked after the Affordable Care Act went into effect, you can keep those plans into 2014.”

Seven words that say it all…“YOU CAN KEEP THOSE PLANS INTO 2014″…NO mention…NONE…of keeping the private plans you belong to and like beyond 2014…as in right after the 2014 mid-term elections everybody goes into ObamaCare whether they like it or NOT!
One year…keep your plans for but one year as Obama NOT so subtly hinted that he would oppose the House Republican plan that is being presented today…a plan that would let people keep their current policies for longer than just one year…saying it would undercut and undermine the structure of ObamaCare.
But you cannot undercut or undermine a structure that does NOT and cannot work for we taxpayers cannot afford to float this monstrosity just to appease Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s oh so wanted health care legacy and his narcissistic ego.
So I hope those seven words and their ramifications really sink in for these very important seven words layout what Obama is actually doing…and that is that states and insurers can extend current policies canceled under ObamaCare for one year and one year alone…thus cleverly delaying ObamaCare’s full implementation until AFTER the 2014 elections and NOTHING more…and he hopes this morsel will NOT only deflect some of the fallout off of those Democrats up for re-election but will placate Republicans..at least for awhile anyway.
Sorry but it will NOT on either account.
“Americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to re-enroll,” Obama said but truth be told he cannot make that happen…only the insurance companies can and only if they choose to do so for Obama cannot just order the pressing of a restart button as he changes the rules of the game in mid-stream…changes the rules concerning policies that have already been lost due to cancellations by private insurance companies. This means those private companies can tell Obama to take a hike if they so choose, because he does NOT have the legal right or authority to tell private insurance companies to take back people they’ve already cancelled….especially since some of these private companies have already left the private health coverage business and all because of ObamaCare. Because of ObamaCare and all its outright stupid mandated coverages…like maternity care for ALL men and menopausal women…like covering the cost of gender reassignment…like teetotalers carrying alcohol rehab coverage.
Need I go on…
And while Obama bloviated of mistakes being made in having those policies cancelled to begin with…mistakes he said that should NOT have happened because ‘supposedly’ private health care policies that people were happy with were ‘grandfathered’ in under ObamaCare…he deliberately left out the fact that the ‘grandfathering’ clause was taken OUT of ObamaCare immediately AFTER ObamaCare was passed back in 2010.
”We fumbled the roll-out,” Obama said which led into his spewing one mother of a huge LIE. “I was NOT informed directly that the website was not working correctly.” At this point I, and I’m sure others, could feel their blood pressure rising for this man knew damn well from day one that the website had problems…hell…he knew BEFORE the website went online that there were problems as the contractors who built the Healthcare.gov website themselves told him there were problems with it and advised him to delay its debut. Obama even issued statements and went on TV…as did his mouthpiece Jay Carney…complaining about the website’s issues and blaming Republicans for all its problems…for all its shortfalls…blaming everyone and anyone he could but himself…his usual pass-the-buck strategy but this time its come back to bite him BIG time.

And on and on Obama’s bloviations went…
But the bottom line is that his anything but a ‘fix’ will NOT work because the fact is that some insurance companies have already started issuing new policies that have incorporated the mandated coverage for the “broad range of benefits” required under ObamaCare. Also, allowing canceled policies to be extended for just one year can potentially destabilize the insurance market and result in higher premiums for policyholders sooner rather than later, because premiums have already been set for next year based on the previous timetable of when policy holders would be transitioning to ObamaCare.
“We are going to solve those problems. We are going to get this right, and the Affordable Care Act is going to work,” Obama desperately pleaded more than just said. And when his so-called ‘fix’ does NOT work Barack HUSSEIN Obama will own that too for a political band-aid is NOT what’s needed…the bad law with its bad medicine needs to be repealed…as it simply does NOT work.
Period.
Diane Sori is the Editor of The Patriot Factor.
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http://dcclothesline.com/2013/11/15/...eit-continues/