Pelosi: It’s fine, the people receiving these insurance cancellations “will do better”

posted at 5:21 pm on November 4, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

Overlooking for a moment the Democrats’ mounting near-dismissals of the mere “five percent of Americans” in the individual market who are liable to be forced off of their current plans (never mind that still more insurance cancellations were reported over the weekend, and hey, what’s a few million people here and there, really?), they continually insist that these individuals are going to be some variation of “better off” with the particular and more comprehensive plans that the government is deciding that they need, and that some people will be eligible for subsidies to help make up for the extra expense. Oddly absent from these talking points are all of the regular, middle-class Americans who don’t actually want to be shuffled into these more expensive plans, because it often means they will be paying significantly higher costs for “benefits” they’re unlikely to use.


They’re saying he said one thing and not the other. The president said, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” For 95 percent of the American people who have health insurance, that is the case. For a small number in the private market, they will do better because of the Patient’s Bill of Rights that is built into our legislation — no preexisting conditions, no lifetime limits, no copay, all the rest of that for certain people. So, they will do better. That’s 95 percent of people who have health insurance, have it through their employer, through Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration. So, we’re just talking about 5 percent — significant, but nonetheless largely will do better.
So, even if you aren’t financially “better off,” the presumption there is that most people will at least be “better of” in terms of health care coverage. …Except, you know, if you aren’t. This WSJ piece from Edie Littlefield Sundby, a cancer patient still in the throes of fighting for her life, is a sobering and worthwhile read on that score:
Everyone now is clamoring about Affordable Care Act winners and losers. I am one of the losers. …
My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.
What happened to the president’s promise, “You can keep your health plan”? Or to the promise that “You can keep your doctor”? Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a world-class physician.


http://hotair.com/archives/2013/11/0...ill-do-better/