A year ago, a panicked Obama administration sent letters to the state insurance commissioners urging them to allow individual health care plans that were illegal under Obamacare to be extended for another year. We wrote about the ploy, which was intended to defuse the outrage that was then building against the “Affordable” Care Act, here and elsewhere.
A year has come and gone, and the Washington Post reports that cancellation notices are going out across the country:
Thousands of consumers who were granted a reprieve to keep insurance plans that do not meet the federal health law’s standards are now learning those plans will be discontinued at year’s end and they’ll have to choose a new, possibly more costly policy.
Obamacare only makes health insurance more expensive. It does nothing to make health insurance cheaper, except for those who get subsidies–in which case the insurance is even more expensive for someone else, who derives no benefit from it.
One reason behind the switch is that insurers determined they can make more money selling plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act, often at higher premiums that may be subsidized by the government.“They’re getting a lot more revenue, often for the same person,” said consultant Robert Laszewski, a former insurance executive.
Of course. That’s why the insurance industry supported Obamacare. The Post takes us down memory lane:
Last year, similar cancellation letters sent to more than 2 million customers created a political firestorm for President Obama, who had promised that “if you like the plan you have, you can keep it.”In response, the administration encouraged states to allow insurers to extend existing plans, even if they did not meet the health law’s standards. Both states and insurers had to agree to the deadline extension, and not all did.
Obamacare is a rolling disaster, and we have barely begun to see its baleful effects. Next up is the employer mandate, which the administration also extended (illegally) for political reasons. The administration has said that a majority of all employer-furnished health plans will be illegal under Obamacare, so millions of Americans will either see their group plans terminated, or changed to more expensive coverage.
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