The insurers are looking more and more complicit in this slimy deal.
If they were “forced” by gubmit to drop policies that were in force and the gubmit reversed the edict, the insurers can surely just cancel the cancel order and let the policies go on, simply a matter of minor paperwork. Any re-underwriting is to simply weed out and increase profitability.
My (admittedly limited) understanding is that it's not quite that simple. They've set their rates for 2014 based on current law, expected risk pool, customer base, and a whole bunch of other variables that I have no idea about. One thing that I am sure of is that it's not a process that can turn on a dime.
THEN, the new rates - in my state at least - need to be signed off on by the insurance commissioner. This is a gov't bureaucracy, like all others ... have you ever seen one work quickly? Yeah, me either.
So - in this particular case, I'd argue that Obama is trying to use insurance companies for political cover, by "allowing" them to present an option they can never meet in the limited time available. He'll then point at them and say, "SEE! I TOLD them they could offer you your old policies and they didn't. They're the bad guys here!". And low info voters will go along with it, because they're low-info.
Now, an argument could be made that the insurance companies should never have supported Obamacare to begin with. To mix metaphors, once they put both feet in bed with Obama, they needed to dance to his tune. So they're *very* complicit in this whole mess.
Just not complicit for this specific problem.
Insurance companies don’t make money off their premiums. They make them off their investments. Maybe their investments haven’t been looking to good due to Obama and Co.