2-year extension offered for canceled health plans

The Obama Administration has decided to allow insurance companies to sell health policies that don't meet the PPACA minimum standards for 2 more years.

This comes just in time for elections and confirms without any doubt that a cancellation problem *Does* in fact exist with out question.

The law is clear about those minimum standards and apparently somewhere in the law it must say that the Administration can delay without Congress amending the law.

Of course this is ultimately up to the States' insurance regulators (and companies) to allow it. Right now about half the States are allowing the first delay and I suspect all States will now review the whole thing yet again, adding more confusion to an already boondoggled situation.

Not to even mention the problem that some people will have now that they are locked into new (possibly higher priced) policies.


2-year extension offered for canceled health plans

Warding off the specter of election-year health insurance cancellations, the Obama administration Wednesday announced a two-year extension for individual policies that don't meet requirements of the new health care law.

The decision helps defuse a political problem for Democrats in tough re-election battles this fall, especially for senators who in 2010 stood with President Barack Obama and voted to pass his health overhaul.

The extension was part of a major package of regulations that sets ground rules for 2015, the second year of government-subsidized health insurance markets under Obama's law — and the first year that larger employers will face a requirement to provide coverage.

I hate to say it but it seems too late, many (most? all?) of those plans have already been canceled. Re-instating them seems like a lot of work for the insurance companies when they can just say they would rather be PPACA compliant and save themselves the extra work.

This would have done a lot of good a few months ago...

The law is clear about those minimum standards and apparently somewhere in the law it must say that the Administration can delay without Congress amending the law.

reply to post by xuenchen


Nowhere in the Constitution is Obama, or any President for that matter, given the power to ammend, change or pass laws without Congress. For a Constitutional lawyer, Obama cleary has no idea what powers were enumerated to the executive....but hey....he can kill Americans without due process and nobody says anything....which only further serves to embolden this criminal to think that he can do whatever he wants with 0 consequences.

The only part of the Constitution Americans seem to care about is the 2nd ammendment. They can violate the 1st, 4th...14th....all they want but don't touch my gun!

This man should be impeached...and in a better world he would be....long before now. What is it going to take?

reply to post by Elton


He *DID* do it a few months ago. This is an extension to the original delay.

Many States and companies said no however.

This is 100% a political election ploy.

It's part of covering their butts for the original lies.

Elton
I hate to say it but it seems too late, many (most? all?) of those plans have already been canceled. Re-instating them seems like a lot of work for the insurance companies when they can just say they would rather be PPACA compliant and save themselves the extra work.

This would have done a lot of good a few months ago...

You are exactly right. From what I understand the insurance companies have already changed all of their policies to be compliant with the ACA. At higher costs for most people.
Once again the president has done something to make himself feel good, without fully thinking through any actual effects of the decree.

reply to post by Elton


It creates an attempt at cover. For those whose policies were cancelled and the not renewed, Democrats can attempt to blame the insurance companies for not playing ball with them (nevermind the difficulty it would create to cancel reinstate all those policies). And for those who dodged the bullet, they continue to do so, but they have to keep living in fear.

I'm waiting for them start trying to accuse Republicans for wanting to get all these policies cancelled so they can attempt to claim the high ground as protectors of policies.

Or maybe I'm just cynical from having watched our politicians at work for too long.

reply to post by deadcalm


He should have been impeached a long time ago, but we have gutless and impeccably partisan elected officials. Those are a bad combination.

Maybe if we can break the stranglehold on the Senate.

But until they actually move violently against the people or the states, I think the violent revolt you seem to want isn't going to happen.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the people don't care, rather they trust that this will be rectified through the system.

I am wondering if staunch Democrats will forget so quickly and vote their 'party' once again

I'd like to know what the final cost for the fiasco will be, but I bet they'll make sure that info isn't easy to find.

But until they actually move violently against the people or the states, I think the violent revolt you seem to want isn't going to happen.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the people don't care, rather they trust that this will be rectified through the system.

reply to post by ketsuko


Whoa there....where are you getting this violent revolution stuff from?....maybe you need to read my comment again....I was talking about IMPEACHMENT for gross violations of the Constitution...you do rememeber the Constitution don't you?

I'm making no mistake here...people DON'T care...if they did they would be out in the streets protesting....lighting up the phones and e-mail inboxes of their representatives....but they are doing none of that. The only thing that seems to get Americans rattled is when you talk about the 2nd ammendment.

NEWS FLASH.....the "system" you expect to "trust" to work things out has been highjacked by banking and corporate interests....if you can't see that by now there is just no helping you.

reply to post by xuenchen


I was just getting ready to say the same thing about the delay and once again bypassing Congress.

I really hope the Republicans take the Senate and hold the house.

Obama and his administration need to be impeached, removed and charged.

All they're doing here is trying to placate as many people as they can before the elections. They know the number of people who actually despise the whole bill is relatively small (IOW - Most people really don't care that the government has no right to force the uninsured to buy insurance because they don't care about other people and they were already paying for insurance anyway).

They also know that most of the people who are complaining about Obamacare are nitpickers who will shut up as soon as whatever their little issue with the law is. IOW, the fact that a lot of people had the policies they liked canceled because of Obamacare was what really pissed them off. Their objections have pretty much nothing to do with the fact that the whole thing is wrong as long as that individual mandate is there. Again, they don't care about that because they were already paying for insurance. All they care about is how it affects them and right now, what it's doing is depriving them of the policy they were happy with. If Obama finds a way to appease them, a huge chunk of protest will disappear instantly and Obama knows it.

The protest over the mandate was never very loud because...

1. The media was deliberately suppressing a lot of it because they knew a lot of the people who would be impacted by the mandate probably had never even heard of it. They knew if they kept their coverage of it to a minimum and kept it vague, the actual number of people who actually knew what was going on would be relatively small and their protests would largely be limited to the internet.

2. The actual number of uninsured was also relatively small so even if they knew about the mandate, there wouldn't be nearly as many people who would be directly impacted by the mandate as there would be people who were already paying for insurance and thought the Obamacare mandate wasn't really going to change anything for them. Most people weren't even talking about it and didn't want to hear about it if someone who WOULD be impacted brought it up. They just told them to shut up and go away.

3. Finally, most people can't see 3 feet in front of their face. They're not thinking about the fact that the mandate to buy insurance or get fined (however small the fine is or regardless of what they call it) is a major legal precedent that will come back to haunt us all in the future.

So. I predict that Obama will find a way to appease most of the people who might vote against the Democrats because of some small issue they have with Obamacare before the next elections. And he won't have to care about the rest of us.