>>> anyone peddling the notion that insurance is cancelling people without plans, without mentioning that almost all the insurances are encouraging people to join better plans with better benefits and stronger protections, while others will be able to get new plans with the namarketplace. and that many will get new health to pay for these plans and make them actually cheaper. if you leave that stuff out, youre being grossly misleading, to say the least. >> the president is respond to go what has become the leading line on republicans attack to obama care in the last week. which is no longer a glitzy website, it is now policy cancellati cancellations. republicans, you see are worried about cancelling the plans and obama forces them to sign up for the plan. but it is not clear that is actually what is happening. >> the provider recently sent her this notice reading because of the requirements of new laws. we can no longer offer your current policy. >> all i want is what i currently have. i want to keep my doctors and i would like to have lower premiums. >> the insurance company is offering her a new plan that would cost $484 a month versus her current $293 premium. a 65% increase. >> so 65% increase, that looks bad, that was a report from nbc nightly news. but the contributing editor saw the report and wanted to know what her other options might be. he did a little digging and discovered that by going on the california exchange, he got quote, nine different choices for a plan. the average cost was $258 or $35 less than what she is paying for her bare bones plan. he found she could get a silver plan, only $23 more than what she is paying now. one of our producers also hopped on the california exchange website and came up with similar results. that is assuming the woman was 45 years old and had an income high enough she didnt qualify for subsidies. now, the other context here is that insurance companies dont seem to be giving people the full menu of options in the letters theyre sending to announce the policy cancellations. in fact, those letters seem like theyre pushing people to join a higher cost plan. it is like saying your toyota is recalled, we can supply you with an avalon for higher the cost. what they dont seem to be showing is they are providing a plan that is about the same as what theyre paying right now. now senior analyst of republican integrity. wendell, i want to start with the baseline, which is what we had had before the affordable care act. which i think is what is getting lost. how common was it for insurance companies to cancel policies in the individual market in a given year? >> well, it is very, very common. in fact, it is one reason i left the industry just because of that practice. in fact, my own son was a victim of that. in 2009, before the affordable care act was passed, he got a letter from his blue cross plan in pennsylvania telling him that his plan was being cancelled. and his options were to go into a plan that was somewhat comparable, but his premiums would increase 65% or he could shift into a very high deductible plan, shifting to one that had a $5,000 deductible plan, with an increase. that is what he was able to do. this has been going on for many years and just is now coming to light. reporters really have not focused on this in years past, so insurance companies have been able to get away with it. >> what is driving this? one is, plan that is are being cancelled have to be replaced with a plan that is compliant with the affordable care act, but i have now seen a bunch of these letters through these stories which have become a kind of genre, the insurance companies saying you can enroll in this plan b, and it is a lot more expensive. but it is also not clear this is the only plan theyre offering. >> right, it is exactly right. it is a classic example of what i used to do for a living. that is, obscure the facts and use selective disclosure of facts to present something and make people think that they will not be able to get something that is better, and probably for less money on the exchange. they dont want you to know that. >> what kind of -- just for people to kind of understand the overall context of the health insurance market, what sliver of the population are we talking about when we talk about people who are in the individual market right now that have plans that are not grandfathered in, that are being cancelled? can you give us a picture -- there are over 3 million americans, what are we looking at here. >> less than 4%, 14 to 15 in the individual market, it is small for two reasons. one, because insurance companies have been able to engage in practices of black balling people because of pre-existing conditions. people cant buy policies at any price, in many cases on the individual market because of being sick in the past. and also because theyre able to cancel policies when they want to. and -- or price them so high that people cant afford them. and so were talking about a very small percentage of the population. here is the other thing, too, though. people in the current market probably can get coverage that is better than what they have now. because a lot of these people are enrolled in junk policies that companies that i used to work for have sold in the past. in fact, the majority of them will qualify for tax credits or subsidies to bring the cost down. so they will be paying less for better coverage. >> quickly, did the administration over-promise when they said repeatedly if you like your plan you can keep it? >> well, it was unfortunate language. because the president nor congress in this law can really control the insurance companies that well, that effectively. they control the health care system in many ways. theyre able to get away with this, and they are, as were seeing. >> right, it was a promise that theyre seeing they could not themselves keep. wendell potter, thank you very much. >>> all right, congressman barney franks name was brought up, cited as the authority, the man supporting the bill. but that is not exactly the case. he will be here to react coming up next. i
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 03:19:14 +0000
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