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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In addition to the President is not blame, have Americans really noticed who is pointing the finger? The same people were elected into office with the letter-R who are allowed to say " I don't like what is happening at work today, I'm not going in today". If an employee did what our Congress got away with, they would be fired. And they argue about things like a 65 year old man should have ob / gyn coverage. I hope the Republicans in congress have coverage for curing their lack of common sense!
@Anonymous
"What I REALLY want to know is why Obama is allowing these "rotten apple insurance" companies to continue their supposed "substandard" and "garbage" policies.
The OTHER thing I'd really like to know is if this is all the greedy insurance companies fault for cancelling these "substandard" and "garbage" policies, then why is it REQUIRED that Obama ALLOW them to reinstate them? "
It's because people like you want to keep their clunker, junk policies. Maybe if you learn how to read you'll find that ObamaCARE will provide you with better care at a cheaper price.
@ObjectiveGuy – Despite your use of incorrect statistics, just exactly HOW has Obama made our healthcare system better and more affordable?
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Aside from the fact that my statistics ARE correct, I never stated that ACA made our system better or more affordable. That was your assumption... as was the kool-aid drinking.. unless of course you were mistaking me for someone else.. The rollout of ACA has been atrocious. The FACT is the insurance companies ARE reacting to the laws and in true capitalistic form sticking it to Americans (yet again) and blaming ACA.
And we are ranked 38th in the world in healthcare AND the MOST EXPENSIVE... do the research.. you don't have to believe me...
All I hear from everyone is; ME, ME, ME, ME....it is all about ME.
Our Country was founded upon and still should return to WE THE PEOPLE. That means Old people should be considerate of the young people who still want to have babies. The young people, many of which benefited from Federal Government programs as a child such as WIC and Food Stamps and Free Student Loans or Grants in order for them to go to school and Free Lunch programs at schools. Now it is time to pay it forward people. For all the older Americans who don't want to pay for younger people to have babies...well that is all fine and well for you now that your biological clock has ticked out. So now you want to tell young Mothers to go to hell.
PEOPLE...We are Americans!!! Stop thinking about yourself and think about all the people of our Country. And YES!!!! Since the Federal Government (Tax Payers) ends up paying the bill for all uninsured care...President Obama has the right and responsibility to execute this. The private market only worked for people who could afford to protect themselves. For all the talking bobble heads...give us a break.
Newt Gingrich...just shut up. A month ago your party wanted to waive the law...now your griping because he did. .
For those of you that say we don't want to help those Americans that are uninsured...thats bull! We already have plans in place to insure them its called MEDICAID morons!!! Until you get lazy people off the couch no program will work. You have to give an incentive for lazy folks to do something. Obamacare is the biggest joke i have ever seen and i am as left as it gets!!! Looks like i will be voting right this next election. Just so dumb for the Dems to let him destroy everything.
Hey Luke, Thats called choice. I would rather have a choice to make a mistake than be told I had to do it per the governments way and find out it was a mistake. Basically you don't mind losing your freedom of choice. I do.
@BobJustBob – He should have gotten the insurance companies to offer identical policies with waivers on ACA constraints to those affected for perpetuity, and if these policies screwed the holders, so be it. Let the market deal with these people.
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They already have that option.. and MOST folks with insurance and in companies with less than 50 employees should not be NOT. What is not being addressed with all the hype going on is that the insurance companies are using ACA as an excuse to do what they have always done... make as much profit as LEGALLY possible while maximizing shareholder value on the backs on Americans.
I've said this before.. the system IS broken. The intent of ACA was good, the rollout horrendous. The GOP and TOP have made ACA their singular focus since it's inception – 42 failed (symbolic) attempts at repeal + a SCOTUS failure. They have spread as much misinformation about it as possible, blocked and tried to derail it's implementation at every turn, even shutting down the Federal Govt over it.
Why?
Those who believe in some altruistic empirical level that the GOP believes ACA is bad for America and it's economy needs to GOOD look at the fiscal and economic state of the USA when that same party handed the reins over to Obama. The only thing they are concerned with is getting back to power. They, nor the insurance companies have your interests at heart. If they did, we would have a bi-partisan working law in place. The right has nothing left to offer America at this point, except candidates rushing to out-conservative themselves. Look at the GOP's approval ratings. Most Americans are moderates and being ultra-conservative doesn't cut it for most of us.
Succeed or fail, at least the ACA was an attempt to provide affordable healthcare for all.
@government is to big
Have you ever heard of "FICA" . Go back to school and get your GED . Stop trying to keep people from getting affordable healthcare. We don't have a choice to pay higher premiums if you get sick and show up to the emergency room with some type of illness. Your argument does not hold water.
"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."
The Companies better hire some good criminal defense lawyers. If they do what Obama, they will be braking the law.
It will be interesting to see how much premiums rise for the canceled health insurance policies IF insurers decide tobring them back. Policyholders may be in for a very rude surprise, getting higher costs coupled with fewer benefits than are required under the PPACA.
Freedom of choice argument does not hold water. WOW.....and then you argue with personal attacks... even better.
The ACA will definitely be more affordable, when people choose to just go without insurance. Millions will be priced out of the market. It is a real shame as this country needed a solution for lower medical care for the uninsured and lower incomes. Failed Plan, never will work.
So why did the Insurance Companies decide to cancel all those policies, rather than just amend them? Most likely there were premium guarantees involved that the insurance companies did not want to deal with. By issuing new policies rather than amending them, the insurance companies get to claim that their profit margins are unknown and would not be limited for the first few years. Further more, the insurance companies can more easily claim higher rates as they know that most people will be eligible for the government subsidy (thus reducing the insureds cost) which is guaranteed money for the insurance company at a much higher rate than what they were previously charging. The minor requirements under ACA such as one routine health exam, contraceptive coverage, immunizations and periodic mammograms, colonoscopies and PSA do not come close to the price increases that the insurance companies are putting forward. Lastly, I must ask the ACA detractors to explain who is going to pay for those persons with insurance polices that do not cover mental health benefits (isn't that what the NRA is always telling us that we have to do something about the mental ill, not restrict guns?) or who reach their lifetime maximum and do not have the money to pay the balance. If you think that it is not paid by the rest of us, you are sorely in need of the mental health benefit.
Premiums will be absurd ... already are!! Worse is the only direction this bill is taking us!!
So here's what I heard today on CNN – employees off CNN or any other employee covered under an employer plan don't have to pay more, you are covered under a group rated plan. Same for Federal and State employees. However, those of us covered under an individual plan (I.e. small business owners and employees) who are healthy get to carry the weight of the uninsured. Thanks Obama for saying I have one more year before the 60% rate increase the exchange promises me goes through, assuming of course my insurance company is willing to eat the rate increase they were promised three years ago. Maybe I should move to Toronto?
Hey Luke,
I can read, there was nothing rotten about my policy or my insurance company. It didn't cover things I didn't need, what makes that rotten? Go read your policy and stop believing the rhetoric you hear on TV.
Class action lawsuit against obama and the nsa. Right cause obama and clinton hillary are keep lied talk to people what about 4 amercian at benghinzi, lybia
Wow. This is exactly what the idiots on the other side of the isle wanted to do several months ago (wait a year to fix the bugs), but the idiots on this side of the isle said "No, we are pushing forward regardless if it's ready to go or not." Now, the people in the middle get to pay the billions of dollars wasted because we have so much extra money to waste. We have the most dysfunctional government (democrat and republican) ever in position in this country, led my an incompetent president that refuses to compromise. We are in really bad shape!
I don't think Obama lied, he just didn't know what he was talking about. Pretty scary to say something like this about the man who lead the reform of our country's healthcare system. The plan was partisan and poorly thought out, at least they didn't get the single payer system they really wanted.
So, I am sure this was asked in all the previous comments, but...... How can the President just wave his hand and make changes to a Law? That is what he is doing, right? The affordable care act is a law with penalties for people that do not comply, right? To change a law, congress needs to vote on it, right? Is the Presidency now a Dictatorship?
Government run by socialists (Democrats) is nothing but organized crime. Here is how socialists increase their control over private property (beyond taxation to pay for useful goods and services actually provided to government). They pass regulations on businesses, e.g., banks, hospitals, to require that they serve everyone regardless if they cannot pay for it, including illegals, and force taxpayers, ratepayers and investors to pay for it, and then, since they argue the government pays for loans, healthcare, etc. (by taking property from taxpayers), the government has a vested interest in increasing their regulation of lenders and health insurance businesses, and then they pass regulations requiring certain insurance policies with certain coverage and free/subsidized insurance paid for by ratepayers and taxpayers, naturally resulting in an increased cost for health insurance for useful people who actually pay for it. This is called the "Third Way" brand of socialism touted by Democrats where they use overregulation to get control of private property to serve their socialist goals of redistributing as much wealth as possible to useless Democrat supporters in handouts, contracts (e.g. to incompetent website operators).
Deep breath & here we go.... I have been a healthcare professional for over 37 years – in many settings, at many levels of responsibility. Please someone give the public a non-biased history lesson! I was there at the beginning of the formation of HCFA; when DRG's were put into place; through varying State Medicaid programs & waiver initiatives (how about the 1946 Hill-Burton Act?) & at the beginning of Managed Care in the private sector. PPO's; HMO's; contiguous alignments; for-profit; not-for-profit; rural & urban. The cost of healthcare under the implementation & administrative overhead of managed care practices alone was unbelievable. Whom do we think pays for the ultimate cost of the un- and under-insured in our country? All of these programs/laws have and continue to require adjustment. I have no party affiliation & will vote for anyone with a rational reasonable brain (so don't read this looking for which side I am on). The media attention needs to provide more facts, less hype. Dr. Sanja Gupta are you listening? This is a job you will master.
you americans get this all wrong.this debate is not about the right or left.... it is about healthcare.If you ever put the debate in the real world ..you will realize that it is about people ...not money.When someone is sick they need care as soon as possible whether they can pay for it or not is irrelevant in the richest counrty in the world.
While the right tries to make it about "choice", the fact is many americans do not have healthcare THEY NEED HEALTHCARE not "choice".
Suit number one. Insurance carrier sells a non- Obamacare compliant plan to a customer. The customer's next door neighbor says, "Hey, I want one of those too". The insurance carrier refuses to provide it to customer two, because he did not previously have the same policy. Customer two sues and successfully argues that it is a violation of his right to equal protection for the carrier to sell a non- Obamacare compliant plan to his neighbor, but not to him. I will personally file this action
Suit number two, person purchases non-Obamacare compliant policy but then has to have medical care or a procedure ( or his 26 year old makes a claim for coverage),not covered under the policy but mandated by Obamacare, and the carrier refuses to pay for it. Carrier is then sued because the law mandates that the coverage is to be provided. carrier loses again.
This is not like immigration, where we are simply talking about the government enforcing the law against illegals. Individuals can not sue for enforcement of the immigration laws. This involves mandated coverages, Obamacare mandated, and once carriers fail to comply, they are open to suit by individuals, not just the government. This "change" can not be done by executive fiat or administrative regulation. Mr. Obama is way outside the law now. He should be ashamed of himself, but his ego doesn't allow it.
Today, in an effort to try and mitigate his blatant lies to the American people., Mr Obama has now called for the blatant disregard of the law of the land. The man is disgusting and has no concept of what it means to be President
I do not think the reporters are doing a great job of investigating all of the allegations; for example, why aren't they interviewing people and looking at the policies they so want to keep. Also, look nationwide at the computer rollouts in other government operated programs even at the state level. I am looking for more facts and credible investigations rather than the dramatic hype to try and increase viewership. I have been a viewer of CNN for many years because it has been somewhat less partisan than some of the other networks; however, over the last several months it appears CNN is losing this and resorting to drama. All commentators need to have credibility. I have been on this earth for a very long time and use to watch the old Crossfire as well as the morning program. The old programs were better and less hype and drama.