Obama never lied about your plan

[DonViejo]

Terminated policies were introduced after ACA's passing -- often with insurers' knowledge they'd be scrapped

DEAN BAKER, ALTERNET

President Obama has been getting a lot of grief in the last few weeks over his pledge that with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place, people would be able to keep their insurance if they like it. The media have been filled with stories about people across the country who are having their insurance policies terminated, ostensibly because they did not meet the requirements of the ACA. While this has led many to say that Obama was lying, there is much less here than meets the eye.

First, it is important to note that the ACA grand-fathered all the individual policies that were in place at the time the law was enacted. This means that the plans in effect at the time that President Obama was pushing the bill could still be offered even if they did not meet all the standards laid out in the ACA.

The plans being terminated because they don’t meet the minimal standards were all plans that insurers introduced after the passage of the ACA. Insurers introduced these plans knowing that they would not meet the standards that would come into effect in 2014. Insurers may not have informed their clients at the time they sold these plans that they would not be available after 2014 because they had designed a plan that did not comply with the ACA.

However if the insurers didn’t tell their clients that the new plans would only be available for a short period of time, the blame would seem to rest with the insurance companies, not the ACA. After all, President Obama did not promise people that he would keep insurers from developing new plans that will not comply with the provisions of the ACA.

In addition to the new plans that were created that did not comply with the terms of the ACA, there have been complaints that the grandfathering was too strict. For example, insurers can only raise their premiums or deductibles by a small amount above the rate of medical inflation. As a result, many of the plans in existence at the time of the ACA are losing their grandfathered status.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/15/no_obama_didnt_lie_to_you_about_your_health_care_plan_partner/

[Whisp]

1. Nah. Let's be pissed at Obama instead.

way more fun in that.

[Skittles]

2. maybe he didn't.....BUT

his administration certainly failed massively in predicting just how sickening insurance companies can be

[JoePhilly]

3. As long as we figure out why we should blame Obama, that's the important thing.

Its not enough to do the right thing. Or to try and mitigate many of the bad things the other side is doing.

Nope. You have to predict, and prevent, every possible scenario. All of them.

If not ... its all your fault.

[DonViejo]

4. Thank you for saying it so eloquently, JoePhilly.

[Skittles]

7. WTF

do you not see ANYWHERE it could have been improved? AT ALL?????

[DonViejo]

19. Try taking a course in reading comprehension instead

of courses on gut reaction faux outrage, hyperbole and foul mouthed comments to make on DU.

[Skittles]

6. is this all you can think of?

I mean, that is just fucking sad

[JoePhilly]

8. Your hyperbole would work much better ...

if you did not use it in every miserable fucking sentence.

See what I did there?

[Skittles]

9. WTF

go back, Joe, and LOOK AT MY POSTS since this debacle - go on - LOOK and STOP ASSUMING SHIT

[JoePhilly]

13. Debacle? All CAPS?

Look, I understand why the media takes every mess and then focuses on how the President caused it.

Or, it's his fault because he did not stop them, or predict their next insane action.

But I'm not sure why DU ends up playing along.

The media freaks out, and DU follows along.

[DonViejo]

20. "Hair on Fire" responses are in the genes of Democratic Party members

and elected officials. All though I've been involved in Party politics for 50+ years, I think I first witnessed the craziness of the "hair on fire" gene during the Clinton administration, when Congressional Democrats allowed themselves to be stampeded into accepting Ken Starr's "investigative report". There have been plenty of other instances (most tragically the rush to war with Iraq and Afghanistan) but it's all ways nerve wracking to witness our party follow some Pied Piper and take the leap off the cliff.

[SunSeeker]

10. I love your posts.

[Skittles]

12. yes, that is all that counts!!

making sure Obama comes out smelling like roses!!!

[SunSeeker]

14. Attacking a DUer for expressing appreciation for another DUer?

[Skittles]

18. oh riiiiiight

yeah, that's all it is

[RBInMaine]

15. Thanks so much for supporting Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

[Skittles]

17. come on, RB

you are better than that

I am simply sick of people who pretend everything is roses - this was a high profile and easily avoidable fuckup

is it as bad as senseless war and a crashed economy? NO - but anything that gives ammunition to conservative assholes is NOT GOOD

[RBInMaine]

21. And he has basically said it was a fuck-up. He has apologized for the confusion, has said he should

have been clearer about the 5% in the shitty individual plans, and has gone the extra step of an executive action to allow the insurance companies to continue the shitty plans for another year even if created AFTER the law was adopted.
And Obama has also said his '09 stump speech was speaking to EVERYONE in group plans, public plans, etc. to reassure them there would be little or no disruption to them. That is just how I interpreted it at the time. He wasn't just talking to the 5% in junk plans. But yes, he should have clarified the caveats with the JUNK PLAN individual market. He SHOULD have said this in his stump:

"NOW folks, for about 95% of you there will be little or no change in your insurance program. If you like what you have now, you will just keep it. That means all you folks in employee group plans, public plans, etc. For the rest of you in the individual market, if you like you current plan, your insurance company can continue it once the new law is passed and you can keep it. But after that, all NEW plans will have to meet new standards so that this part of the market offers better insurance and becomes more stable. You will be able to shop from your current insurance company or go on the exchange and get a new plan, many of you with subsidies. You'll get better insurance at a good rate."

So yes, we get it and Obama gets it. But he did not "lie". And we don't have to keep harping on it and being nasty about it. He has owned it, has apologized, has worked to fix it, and now let's go make the new law work.

[Skittles]

23. you accuse me of supporting Limbaugh and Fox News

and then accuse others of being NASTY?

[appacom]

29. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Skip Intro]

16. For some here, that is all that counts.

Don't step out of line, sing loudly from the hymnal and hit all the right notes, or you'll face incoming fire, while honest, reality-based discussion is lost in the haze.

When all a poster can do is attack, you know immediately they have nothing of substance to offer. But don't let the lockstep cheerleaders or their insults bug you, Skittles. They don't run the place, as you know.

[RBInMaine]

22. No, but there are also those of us grow weary of endless rantings from circular firing squaders in

the TeaLeft.

[Skip Intro]

24. Please enlighten me as to the Tea Left. n/t

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

26. Tea Left = Obama is just like Bush; he's a liar, he's evil and everything is his fault...

...even if there's evidence to the contrary.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

25. Come on now, Joe. You know how we do here at DU. It's always Obama's fault. It wouldn't be DU were

it any different.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

27. Amen brother. And always remember: no good deed goes unpunished.

[quadrature]

5. Rejoice! ... ICs are allowed to dump the sick

everybody wins when insurance companies
are allowed to take actions that
allow them to get rid of undesireables.

(um, maybe not quite everybody)

[SunSeeker]

11. K & R

[Demeter]

28. he just never told the truth n/t

[Cha]

30. Of course he didn't and anyone who says he did is spewing

rw bullshit.

thanks DV