Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a
“grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their
existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the
Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection.
“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small
employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish
their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration
on page 34,552 of the Register. All in all, more than half of
employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and become
illegal. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million
Americans—more than half the population—was covered by
employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.
Another 25 million people, according to the CBO, have “nongroup and
other” forms of insurance; that is to say, they participate in the
market for individually-purchased insurance. In this market, the
administration projected that “40 to 67 percent” of
individually-purchased plans would lose their Obamacare-sanctioned
“grandfather status” and become illegal, solely due to the fact that
there is a high turnover of participants and insurance arrangements in
this market. (Plans purchased after March 23, 2010 do not benefit from
the “grandfather” clause.) The real turnover rate would be higher,
because plans can lose their grandfather status for a number of other
reasons.
And the bastards are now claiming their lies weren't really lies, and even if they were it's for your own good, so shut up and be a good, obedient peasant bowing to the lord.
Now, supporters of the law are offering a different argument. “We
didn’t really mean it when we said you could keep your plan,” they say,
“but it doesn’t matter, because the coverage you’re going to get under
Obamacare will be better than the coverage you had before.”
But that’s not true. Obamacare forces insurers to offer services that
most Americans don’t need, don’t want, and won’t use, for a higher
price. Bob Laszewski, in a revealing blog post,
wrote about the cancellation of his own health coverage. “Right now,”
he wrote, “I have ‘Cadillac’ health insurance. I can access every
provider in the national Blue Cross network—about every doc and hospital
in America—without a referral and without higher deductibles and
co-pays.”
But his plan is being canceled. His new, Obamacare-compatible plan
has a $500 higher deductible, and a narrower physician and hospital
network that restricts out-of-town providers. And yet it costs 66
percent more than his current plan. “Mr. President,” he writes, “I
really like my health plan and I would like to keep it. Can you help me
out here?”
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