Ezra Klein: Obamacare’s real promise: if you lose your health-care plan, you can get a new one

[flpoljunkie]

Obamacare’s real promise: if you lose your health-care plan, you can get a new one
Posted by Ezra Klein on December 7, 2013

The furor over "if you like your plan, you can keep it" touches on a deep fear in American life: That your health-care insurance can be taken from you. That fear is so powerful because it happens so often: Almost everyone in the country can lose their health insurance at any time, for all kinds of reasons — and every year, millions do.

If you're one of the 149 million people who get health insurance through your employer, you can lose your plan if you get fired, or if the H.R. department decides to change plans, or if you have to move to a branch in another state.

If you're one of the 51 million people who get Medicaid, you could lose your plan because your income rises and you're no longer eligible or because your state cut its Medicaid budget and made you ineligible. You could lose it because you moved from Minnesota, where childless adults making less than 75 percent of the poverty line are eligible, to Texas, where there's no coverage for childless adults.

If you're one of the 15 million Americans who buys insurance on the individual market, you could lose your plan because your insurer decides to stop offering it or decides to jack up the price by 35 percent. And that's assuming you're one of the lucky people who weren't denied coverage based on preexisting conditions in the first place.

more…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/07/obamacares-real-promise-if-you-lose-your-health-care-plan-you-can-get-a-new-one/

[Small Accumulates]

1. Precisely.

Mr. Accumulates was laid off last week. His job provided the insurance for our family. In the past, we'd have had to do without because of my medical history. Now, we don't have to panic because we are moving into Obamacare. Thank you, President Obama, for that little bit of piece of mind in the midst of this turmoil.

[Hoyt]

2. I agree, that is most important aspect so far. Need to get poor coverage they can use.

ACA was a big first step. It could have been better, save for Republican obstructionists and stupid people. But, it needs improvement.

[bemildred]

3. Yes, improved worker mobility.

I can well remember when people started keeping jobs to keep health insurance, it was not always this way.