http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-20/obama-aides-say-more-to-gain-coverage-under-aca-than-canceled.html Obama Lifts Insurance Mandate for People With Canceled Policies By Alex Wayne and Margaret Talev Dec 19, 2013 10:04 PM CT
Americans whose health-insurance policies are being canceled because they don’t comply with Obamacare requirements will be exempt from the law’s mandate that they carry insurance, under a policy change the Obama administration announced late today.
The change, which administration officials said will affect fewer than 500,000 people, comes days before a Dec. 23 deadline for people to buy new coverage effective Jan. 1. People losing coverage also will be eligible to buy high-deductible “catastrophic” plans that the law normally limits to those under age 30.
Insurers warned that the new exemptions, which would last a year and potentially longer for consumers granted hardship exceptions, risks destabilizing new insurance marketplaces if it results in younger, healthier people who now carry cheap plans opting out of buying replacement coverage.
“This latest rule change could cause significant instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers,” Karen Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s Washington lobby group, said in an e-mail from a spokesman.
The Obama administration gave its first estimate of the policy losses as insurers are automatically enrolling in new plans many policy-holders who would otherwise lose coverage. Fewer than 500,000 Americans, less than the number of cancellations sent in recent weeks, will lose insurance starting Jan. 1 because their policies don’t meet Obamacare requirements and they haven’t found new coverage, according to administration officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
Guidance Issued
The exemption from the law’s individual mandate was announced separately, in guidance issued by the U.S. Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is a common-sense clarification of the law,” Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, said in an e-mail. “For the limited number of consumers whose plans have been canceled and are seeking coverage, this is one more option.”
In California, more than 1 million policy holders received letters from their current insurers saying their coverage will be canceled after Dec. 31 because their plans don’t comply, and hundreds of thousands were canceled in other states.
That has stoked the political backlash against President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law and came on top of the botched October rollout of the government-run insurance exchange where people are supposed to shop for health coverage.
Policy Changes
Obama has responded with a flurry of last-minute policy changes to give people more time to sign up for insurance and blunt the effect of cancellations.
He announced Nov. 14 that states could allow plans to extend current policies for a year. At least 22 states, including California and New York, have said they won’t allow insurers to extend expiring plans, according to Ignagni’s group. Instead, people in those states will have to buy new policies that comply with the law, either directly from insurers or through government-run marketplaces.
A week later, he pushed back the deadline to sign up for coverage effective Jan. 1 by eight days, to Dec. 23.
On Dec. 13 the administration urged insurers to provide more leniency to people shopping for new coverage by allowing them to pay for plans later in January and sign up retroactively for coverage beginning Jan. 1. The government also asked insurers to cover care from any doctor or hospital in January and to cover refills of prescriptions during the month regardless of any network restrictions.
Payment Window
The industry said yesterday that it would allow payment for coverage beginning Jan. 1 as late as Jan. 10. Insurers haven’t agreed to the other requests.
The government is trying to reach people seeking new policies who may have experienced bugs or errors in the federal enrollment system before the Dec. 23 deadline, said the officials who briefed reporters. More than 2 million e-mails have been sent to people who tried to sign up in October and November and hit technical problems, the officials said, and government call centers have placed more than 600,000 phone calls to those customers.
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I'm wondering why Obama now says people can have bare bones catastrophic plans when they were cursed by him as he campaigned for this complete failure?
