Boy, the crack team in the Obama admin shot themselves in the foot, in back-end tech execution, in not explaining well to the average voter that insurance companies would cancel inadequate plans (repeatedly popping off the blanket you can keep your plan was a preposterous statement that no one thought would come back to haunt them?). All the 2014 Dems in tight races are now pressuring TPTB to fix it so they dont pay the price for the admins blunders at the polls. So now here come the solutions that threaten the whole point of getting healthy people into the risk pool of folks in exchanges ASAP. Nice going. Couldnt have helped the GOP more; it helps the Koch Bros stretch their anti-ACA ad dollars well on these races. In the real world, heads would be rolling at all levels. Anyway, take it away, Igor Volsky and Adam Peck: Ultimately, there is no fixing the cancellation issue if your policy goal is to move beneficiaries from less comprehensive policies into more comprehensive policies. Since Obamacare establishes a federal minimum standard all plans have to meet, people enrolled in plans that don’t meet that threshold will eventually have to abandon them. For lawmakers and policyholders, the key questions are when and at what cost. Obama and Upton would give individuals approximately a year to transition into Obamacare plans, Udall provides for two, and Landrieu would let you keep your insurance for as long as you’d like. But there is a catch: maintaining healthier people in their existing plans — either by requiring insurers to continue offering current policies or giving them that option — means they can’t be part of the marketplaces, as the law had originally envisioned, and insurers anticipated when they calculated premiums for 2014. Keeping this population out of the law could cause some insurers to reassess their rates — others could leave the exchanges altogether. The premiums for 2015 — which would be revealed in 2014 — would almost certainly increase as a result. Meanwhile, companies that have already cancelled certain individual policies would struggle to reverse their decisions. They would need to reprogram computers and file new rates for approval. Many say that the task is simply impossible. However, insurers that do maintain their policies (or are forced to do so by state insurance commissioners) could benefit handsomely from Upton’s bill. He would allow grandfathered policies to enroll new beneficiaries or effectively cherry pick the healthiest and youngest beneficiaries — worsening the marketplaces’ adverse selection problem.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 12:55:04 +0000
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