First on CNN: Obama to push fix for insurance cancellations
[Breaking news update 11:55 a.m. ET]
Sources close to the insurance industry tell CNN's Gloria Borger that it looks like insurance companies will cooperate with President Barack Obama's proposed solution to the problem of health care plan cancellations due to Obamacare.
[Original story posted 11:03 a.m. ET]
(CNN) – President Barack Obama will lay out an administrative solution to address the problem of people getting cancellation notices from their health insurance providers due to the Affordable Care Act, a senior Democratic source familiar with the plan tells CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash.
Obama will deliver remarks at 11:35 a.m. ET in the White House Press Briefing Room, the White House announced Thursday morning.
The plan will in part call for insurance policies to be renewed for one year for those who already have insurance policies in the individual market, the source said.
If an insurance company does renew a substandard plan, it would be required to do two things. First, it would have to notify the policy holder of alternative coverage options. Second, the company would have to disclose all of the benefits a policy holder will lose if she keeps an existing substandard plan.
The source noted the President may disclose additional details.
White House says Obamacare site improving, enrollment off sharply
In addition, the source said the President would allow state insurance commissioners to decide on their own to not permit this renewal.
It's worth noting, however, that there are some states - including Virginia, Kentucky and Idaho - that require all plans in their state to comply with Affordable Care Act standards.
White House officials get earful from Democrats on Obamacare
Even though the President is about to announce the fix, House Democrats are planning to unveil their own legislative proposal that will be offered as an alternative during a procedural vote on the House GOP bill tomorrow, according to two senior House Democratic aides.
“It's back up,” one of these aides told CNN. “We want to have suspenders and a belt.”
This will allow members of Congress to be on the record voting for a solution.
Poll: Obama approval ratings drop, Americans say he's not trustworthy
When selling Obamacare, the President repeatedly assured Americans they would be able to keep their plans if they liked them. However, many Americans have been getting dropped from their providers because their existing policies don't work with the new regulations.
Obama has since apologized for people losing their coverage and pledged to find a solution.
Many in Congress avoiding health care exchanges
– CNN’s Deirdre Walsh and Mark Preston contributed to this report.
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If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period. Well, for a year.
Can't even imagine how many billions this "fix" is going to cost the taxpayers. @ why the outrage??, have you ever considered that the "substandard" policies are likely taken out by people who are younger and healthier, and deem themselves unlikely to need much medical coverage, hence they don't want to PAY for coverage that they will more than likely not need or use. These policies generally only kick in for major medical coverage, and are not intended to cover routine minor costs. When I was a kid, people paid out of pocket for routine minor medical costs, such as regular doctor's visits, vaccinations, dentist visits, etc. The only thing insurance covered was major costs, like hospital stays, etc. What is wrong with empowering consumers with options from which to choose, based on their needs and on what they can afford? And while we're at it, if we had discouraged/capped medical malpractice suits to only cover cases of real negligence, then perhaps medical costs would be quite a bit more reasonable, since doctors would not be needing to pass along the horrendous costs of their malpractice insurance, and would not necessarily need to prescribe five tests for every minor malady in order to keep themselves from getting sued. The system worked much better before the lawyers and the government got involved, and we should probably to try to work our way back in that direction.
And this makes the ACA affordable; How?
Hilarious! So how does he uncancel plans? What a mess.
So, you Obabot paid trolls out here are saying 5 Million Tax-Paying Voting Americans purchased sub-standard banana plans ? Seriously ? Really ? That is your excuse this time, '5 Million Americans are stupid' ? What happened to 'If you like your plan you can keep it' ? Every single Democrat in the Senate and the Lower House should be impeached, jailed and run out of town for flat out lying to the American People. Keep it up and CWII cannot be far down the road.
Now I understand why the GOP was fighting to delay and review this mess. Well partially anyway.
Even as the Affordable Health Care Act was being debated in Congress years ago, Obama forecast that modifications (tweaks) would have to be made to correct problems as they popped up . . . And Boy was he right about that.
Our president is a prophet!
This is to get the dems thru the next election.
Obama wanted a Public option years ago to compete against the greedy private insurance sector but Republicans shot that down in flames. If A Republican President was in the White House absolutely nothing would have been down about the health insurance mess. At least he is trying. Heck even if it was running smoothly, Republicans would find something to complain about and try to stop it anyway. Thank you Obama for finally doing something about it. Republicans would do nothing.
So, the "fix" is to allow people to NOT USE THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT? Why not make this a long-term fix and scrap it altogether? We'll just call it what it is...a multi-billion-dollar experiment in wasting money and time.
"the company would have to disclose all of the benefits a policy holder will lose if she keeps an existing substandard plan."
Oh so they'll have to notify young, healthy, single males that they will lose their colonoscopies, pre-natal, and OBGYN coverage and young, healthy, females that they won't be able to get that prostate exam they've been waiting for.
There he goes....kicking the can down the road instead of picking it up and putting it where it belongs
Jesus Christ !!!....something tells me just-don't-get-it
As a 60yo male, I'm required under Obamacare to carry OB/GYN healthcare coverage for myself. For anyone telling me that my current policy that is being cancelled doesn't provide enough coverage versus requiring me to carry and pay for coverage that I'll never use is not simply hypocritical, it's quasi-criminal. The President of the United States lied to get re-elected. No surprise there. Having lived in Illinois for nearly 25 years you get used to the criminal political system that is Illinois politics. If you want to argue that the President repeatedly lies because that's his political background, it might be the better argument. Of course, he can always fall back on "I didn't know."
So in one year that have to go through all of this again and lose their health coverage AGAIN? Is this president trying to torture people? How is this a fix? It isn't.
My guess is that it is too late in the game to do this and it's just another way for him to provide political cover for dems and will likely result in him blaming insurance companies when they aren't able to undo this in time. If the deal is so great in the exchanges, and the plans are such a great value, then why would they need to force 5+ million folks out of their so-called substandard private plans? Bottom line, this act has dramatically increased the cost of doing business for health care organizations, has resulted in thousands of works losing their jobs. Now they are creating the conditions where folks will lose their private coverage and be forced to buy the more expensive government selected coverage. This is just one incredibly large burden on business, healthcare orgs, working citizens, all in the name of helping 1% of the population. The only thing to do now is to strip this Law from it's restrictive regulations and detrimental taxes and let the exchanges compete if they truly feel it is a better deal.
Exactly what in the ACA or other the Constitution or other Federal law gives the President the power to force insurance companies to offer these policies under these new terms? And has anyone considered how long, even if you believe his actions pass muster, it would take for insurance companies to be able to update their systems to comply with these requirements?
OMG, that Dana Bash is just as full of chits as Obama. How can she sit there with a straight face and read that tripe? Obama is going to either blame the insurance companies or each state insurance commissioner when this cluster buck falls through.
Praise the boy genius President Obama! I can keep the policy that I like, but for only 1 year, and then he gets to screw me over royally like he wants to do to me this year. You can't expect much on the intellectual level from an affirmative action president. SCRAP THIS HORROR!
The liberals absolutely love the tried and true policy of "kicking the can down the road." Or kick it far enough to get by the 2014 elections.
ST how can anyone respect an individual that continues to tell lies and mislead the world for his own selfish interests? The USA is moving towards socialism, which is this leaders #1 agenda. So you call this President the leader of the free world? Enjoy your freedom while it lasts.......our government, our financial stability, our infrastructure, our healthcare our immigration are all falling into ruins. Does the fall of the Rome ring a bell???
This President is a JOKE !!! I don't know how he can show his face !!! Taking the Ted Cruz path now. It's time to impeach him. Right NOW !!!
"If you like your coverage, you can keep it. Period. But only for a year."
22 year old who doesn't work and collects liberal aid all day everyday , ahahahahahahaha , thanks you guys for voting this socialist in now i never have to work
@Chris – The Democratic way...let's kick the can down the road a little bit. Continuing resolutions, fiscal cliffs and now Obamacare.
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What are you??? SIX yrs old? If you want to talk kicking the can down the road.. lets examine the end results of 8 yrs of Dubya's regime... DOUBLING of National Debt, TARP, TWO UNFUNDED wars, UNFUNDED Medicare Part D, UNFUNDED tax cuts, Budget deficit for Obama's first fiscal year, signed 2 week before being sworn in.. $1.47T, loss of 700,000 jobs a month on exit, totalling some 4.2 Million jobs lost, and a major economic collapse called a DEPRESSION.
Those COST are what cased the National debt to hit $17T.. not Obama spending.. and oh.. BTW, the large majority of what is in ACA is based on MA's (Romneycare) plan, and the Heritage Foundations individual mandate and giving of Medicare funds to the insurance companies.