Preempting a House vote on Obamacare that would allow Americans to keep their current health insurance plans, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced a new administration policy to allow most people keep their current plans. But the new policy will also require insurance companies to inform customers they might have a better deal from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
“There is no doubt the way I put that forward unequivocally ended up not being accurate,” Obama said during a presidential news conference Friday. “It was not my intention not to deliver on that promise. We put a grandfather clause in the law but that was insufficient.”
The administration initiative, a one-year fix, will allow the 2013 plans to be grandfathered in, but with two caveats, according to White House senior officials.
The first caveat requires insurance companies to inform consumers of what their plans do not include. This would include whether existing plans don’t cover things such as maternity care or contain annual or lifetime limits. The second requires the insurance companies to inform consumers what they could get on the Obamacare marketplace, that they could qualify for tax credits or qualify for Medicaid.
The policy is almost voluntary. It will still be at the discretion of the insurance companies whether to restart plans that have already been canceled as a result of the health care law. White House officials said they reserve the right to take another look at the matter in a year. Further, it will be up to state insurance officials whether to allow plans to be sold in their state that do not comply with Obamacare.
This is consistent with the administration’s theme of characterizing most of the existing plans on the individual market “substandard,” compared to the plans that are being offered on the health care exchange.
Obama pledged on at least 36 occasions – 10 of those times after signing the Affordable Care Act into law – that anyone who likes their current health insurance plan could keep it. That turned out not to be the case as millions of people have gotten or are getting cancellations letters for their insurance as a result of Obamacare regulations.
After first trying to explain that he didn’t mean precisely what he said, Obama was called out by non-partisan fact checkers. He gave a partial apology last week during an interview with NBC News for misleading the American people on the matter.
A Quinnipiac University poll found that 52 percent of the public does not believe Obama is honest and trustworthy, the lowest rating in his presidency. This comes as most polls show his job approval rating at or below 40 percent.
Obama called the pending House legislation a “brazen attempt” to do away with the Affordable Care Act and return to a “broken system.”
The House was set to vote Friday on a proposal supporters said would keep the president’s promise by allowing all Americans to keep their existing insurance plan. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The bill, like similar Senate legislation, appeared likely to receive substantial support from Democrats if Obama did not present his own plan.
White House officials said the Upton bill would allow 2013 policies, or pre-Obamacare marketplace plans – to be sold in 2014. This, officials said, would undermine the entire Obamacare law.
FRED LUCAS | November 14, 2013
Originally published by TheBlaze
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