Meltdown: 1.4 Million New Obamacare Cancellations Coming Soon

Townhall.com ^ | October 14, 2016 | Guy Benson

[Kaslin]

I do believe someone famous once said of Obamacare, "if you like your plan, you can keep it." And by "once said," I mean, "said over and over again, ad nauseam." Not only was that promise a lie -- which the White House knew at the time -- for millions of Americans who were booted off of their existing coverage when the law was first implemented, it's an ongoing lie for consumers who are participating in the law's exchanges. The The next big shake-up is looming, directly caused by Obamacare's unsustainable model and lack of affordability -

A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise. At least 1.4 million people in 32 states will lose the Obamacare plan they have now, according to state officials contacted by Bloomberg. That’s largely caused by Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and some state or regional insurers quitting the law’s markets for individual coverage. Sign-ups for Obamacare coverage begin next month. Fallout from the quitting insurers has emerged as the latest threat to the law, which is also a major focal point in the U.S. presidential election. While it’s not clear what all the consequences of the departing insurers will be, interviews with regulators and insurance customers suggest that plans will be fewer and more expensive, and may not include the same doctors and hospitals. It may also mean that instead of growing in 2017, Obamacare could shrink.

"Keep your doctor" was also an Obama pledge, as you'll of course recall.  As we keep saying, and as more Democrats are being forced to admit, the law is failing. And those ramifications are just in the individual market. If Democrats get their way (again) by implementing a "public option" or eventually single-payer, many millions people with satisfactory employer-based coverage should expect to be uprooted and shunted into government-run programs. In the meantime, Obamacare is still hurting people. The Washington Post paints a dreary portrait in North Carolina:

As major insurers jilt their ACA customers, nowhere in the country will more people be left with only a single insurer when the marketplaces open for a fourth year of business. These defections are causing turbulence for a quarter-million North Carolinians whose insurance companies are leaving the state — and for the main insurer that will remain. Such turbulence is especially palpable in the rolling Piedmont in and around Greensboro. Of more than 30,000 people here who have gained ACA insurance, 80 percent have been relying on United Healthcare or Aetna Health, the companies pulling out at the end of December. “Wow, it is going to be huge,” said Natalie Cunningham, a 30-year-old hairdresser who had been uninsured for years before she got her first ACA coverage in 2014. Her health plan enabled her to see a chiropractor who diagnosed her neck and back pains as arthritis that probably was a remnant of a decade-old car accident. As of a week ago, Cunningham had not yet received the letter required of her current insurer, an Aetna subsidiary called Coventry, informing her that she needs to find different coverage. But she is like many residents in worrying how much insurance will cost in the coming year. Or whether they will be able to continue to see the same doctors. Or how their narrowing choice will affect the hopscotch they’ve been playing year to year in pursuit of a health plan they can afford.

It's a trifecta of betrayals: People can't keep their plans, are being forced to pay more, and have sharply diminished options for care.  I'll leave you with Ed Morrissey's analysis of Obamacare rationing. This mess is starting to run on fumes in hard-hit areas, as Congressional Republicans are ramping up legal pressure against the Obama administration's alleged scheme to skirt the law and bail out insurers through backdoor payments:

BOOM House files powerful brief urging dismissal with prejudice of Risk Corridors class action.https://t.co/i5acrTDrEV pic.twitter.com/FVka73aCIm— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 14, 2016

[smokingfrog]

And the insurance is crappy and overpriced to boot!

[okie01]

You voted for it America.

No, America didn't vote for it.

60 Democrat senators and 219 Democrat congressmen voted for it. Not a single Republican. And it was passed against the will of the people, who were against it 2-to-1.

You can make the case that America voted in Obama and a Democrat congress. But they sure as hell weren't voting for Obamacare.

[Gene Eric]

Indeed. Rates have increased 35% and the deductibles are structured to strip an additional few thousand before insurance kicks in.

On Platinum. If I could bank $15G for health costs, I’d cut over to catastrophic.

[grey_whiskers]

Hat tip to FReeper Liz:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3480457/posts

LOCK-STEPPING DEMOCRAT PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40’s ERA EUROPE.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-Nev.): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN: “We believe — and we stand by this — if you like your current health insurance plan, you will be able to keep it, plain and simple, straightforward.” (Sen. Durbin, Congressional Record, S.6401, 6/10/09)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “If you like your insurance, you keep it.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up 9/29/09)
SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.): “Again, if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it. Let me say this again: If you like what you have, when our legislation is passed and signed by the President, you will be able to keep it.” (Sen. Murray, Congressional Record, S.6400, 6/10/09)
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-Mont.): “That is why one of the central promises of health care reform has been and is: If you like what you have, you can keep it. That is critically important. If a person has a plan, and he or she likes it, he or she can keep it.” (Sen. Baucus, Congressional Record, S.7676, 9/29/10)
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-Iowa): “One of the things we put in the health care bill when we designed it was the protection for consumers to keep the plan they have if they like it; thus, the term ‘grandfathered plans.’ If you have a plan you like — existing policies — you can keep them. … we said, if you like a plan, you get to keep it, and you can grandfather it in.” (Sen. Harkin, Congressional Record, S.7675-6, 9/29/10)
THEN-REP. TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.): “Under the bill, if you like the insurance you have now, you may keep it and it will improve.” (Rep. Baldwin, Press Release, 3/18/10)
SEN. MARK BEGICH (D-Alaska): “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want.” (Sen. Begich, Townhall Event, 7/27/09)
SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.): “We should begin with a basic principle: if you have coverage and you like it, you can keep it. If you have your doctor, and you like him or her, you should be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choice away from you.” (Sen. Bennet, Press Release, 6/11/09)
SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-Calif.): “So we Democrats want people to be able to keep the health care they have. And the answerto that is choice of plans. And in the exchange, we’re going to have lots of different plans, and people will be able to keep the health care coverage they need and they want.” (Sen. Boxer, Press Release, 2/8/11)
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio): “Our Democrat bill says if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it…”(Sen.Brown, Congressional Record, S.12612, 12/7/09)
SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-Md.): “For the people of Maryland, this bill will provide a rational way in which they can maintain their existing coverage…” (Sen. Cardin, Congressional Record, S.13798, 12/23/09)
SEN. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.): “I also believe this Democrat legislation and the bill we are going to send to President Obama this fall will also have secure choices. If you like what you have, you like the plan you have, you can keep it. It is not going to change.” (Sen. Casey, Congressional Record, S.8070, 7/24/09)
SEN. KAY HAGAN (D-N.C.): ‘People who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it’ “We need to support the private insurance industry so that people who have insurance they’re happy with can keep it while also providing a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage.” (“Republicans Vent As Other Compromise Plans Get Aired,” National Journal’s Congress Daily, 6/18/09)
SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-La.): “If you like the insurance that you have, you’ll be able to keep it.” (MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/16/09)
SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-Vt.): “[I]f you like the insurance you now have, keep the insurance you have.” (CNN’s “Newsroom,” 10/22/09)
SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.): “If you like what you have, you get to keep it” “Menendez is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to release a bill later this week. He stressed that consumers who are satisfied with their plans won’t have to change. ‘If you like what you have, you get to keep it,’ he said.” (“Health Care Plan Would Help N.J., Menendez Says,” The Record, 6/19/09)
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Oreg.): “[E]nsuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it” “The HELP Committee billsets forward a historic Democrat plan that will, for the first time in American history, give every American access to affordable health coverage, reduce costs, and increase choice, while ensuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it.” (Sen. Merkley, Press Release, 7/15/09)
SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D-Md.): “It means that if you like the insurance you have now, you can keep it.” (Sen. Mikulski, Press Release, 12/24/09)
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-W.Va.): “I want people to know, the President’s promise that if you like the coverage you have today you can keep it is a pledge we intend to keep.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 9/23/09)
SEN. JACK REED (D-R.I.): “If you like the insurance you have, you can choose to keep it.” (Sen. Reed, Town Hall Event, 6/25/09)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.): “‘If you have coverage you like, you can keep it,’ says Sen. Sanders.” (“Sick And Wrong,” Rolling Stone, 4/5/10)
SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.): ‘if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it’ “My understanding … is that … if you have health coverage that you like you can keep it. As I said, you may have missed my remarks at the beginning of the call, but one of the things I that I said as a requirement that I have for supporting a Democrat bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that. …under every scenario that I’ve seen, if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it.” (Sen. Shaheen, “Health Care Questions From Across New Hampshire,” Accessed 11/13/13)
SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D-Mich.): “As someone who has a large number of large employers in my state, one of the things I appreciate about the Democrat chairman’s remark is — is the grandfathering provisions, the fact that the people in my state, 60 percent of whom have insurance, are going to be able to keep it. And Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. That’s a strong commitment. It’s clear in the bill … I appreciate the strong commitment on your part and the president to make sure that if you have your insurance you can keep it. That’s the bottom line for me.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/24/09)
SEN. JON TESTER (D-Mont.): “‘If you like your coverage, you’ll be able to keep it,’ Tester said, adding that if Medicare changes, it will only become stronger”. (“Tester In Baker To Discuss Health Care,” The Fallon County Times, 11/20/09)
SEN. TOM UDALL (D-N.Mex.): “Some worried reform would alter their current coverage. It won’t. If you like your current plan, you can keep it.” (“What I Learned: About Health Care Reform This Summer, By Your Lawmakers In Congress,” Albuquerque Journal, 9/8/09)
SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.): “..it honors President Obama’s programs and the promise of all of the Presidential candidates that if you like the plan you have, you get to keep it. You are not forced out of anything.” (Sen. Whitehouse, Congressional Record, S.8668, 8/3/09)
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) the 60th vote on Obamacare: “people who are happy with their current plan, wouldn’t need to change it.”
FRANKEN YOUTUBE SOUND BITE
https://youtube/UCZmAYYNz8I

[windsorknot]

If the polls are correct, it would seem that there are many out there who want a continuation of the 0bama agenda, including 0bamafraud. They are truly deplorable.

[Paul R.]

If Trump wins and the media tries to blame the ObamaCare failure on him, Trump will shove it right back down their throats. He’s not Jeb...

Moreover, the OFFICIAL premium increases for 2017 are starting to come out. In Obamaland (IL) the lowest cost Silver Plan premiums are going up 45%. BCBS-IL is saying 51% (I’m guessing that’s an average for all plans - the TV report I saw was not clear on that.) Trump needs to hit this hard: Who can afford a 45% increase in one year, especially given that the premiums are already insanely high?

Oh, sure, many will have their premiums subsidized, but even then, Trump can hit a theme of “Guess what folks, now these corrupt pols have you by whatever part of your anatomy is most sensitive...” With that big an increase, and the huge deductibles, most people may finally realize he, and we, are right.

[Fungi]

Do you like white or whole wheat pitas?

[arrogantsob]

With regard to prescription drug costs. Check out Good Rx, there are amazing savings there. Example - I have one expensive drug CVS was charging me 85-90 bucks now I get it for 13 with the Good Rx coupon.

[Lorianne]

It’s going to be ugly.
I hope the Dems pay for this if not this election, then in 2018 in the midterms. We need another 2010 only bigger and w/o all the sellout in the GOP.

[Tzimisce]

6 years on it’s still being fully implemented with no signs of anyone even trying to stop it.

Here we are in an election year: have you heard ANYONE talk about dumping Obamacare?

I mean, look at all the bad news rolling out.

You’d think SOMEONE running for office would be talking about it.

But no one is.
Because voters don’t care.

What’s the saying?
Silence is complicity?

[okie01]

You’d think SOMEONE running for office would be talking about it.

Trump mentions it, from time-to-time.

Unfortunately, I believe the emphasis has changed from repealing Obamacare to "fixing" Obamacare.

[MrChips]

Mine came in the mail today.

[SaveFerris]

LOL

I don’t know how any fool can believe one word out of the mouth of that pathological liar after all we’ve seen and heard.

But I’m sure there are still a few “true believers” out there.

[Paul R.]

In Trump’s last speech, 10/14 - Charlotte, NC, it was get rid of and replace, and his position paper is so far as I know unchanged.

He’s just gotta hit the big premium increases in 2017 harder, though.

[jmacusa]

Today I’m going to the funeral of an old and dear friend. A decorated combat veteran of Vietnam. I was very touched as to how his surviving siblings consoled one another. As for mine, I couldn’t give a rip about them.

[Gene Eric]

Low carb when I can find them

[Bookwoman]

I just lost my Medicare plan (as of the end of the year)! One month after it started, here I am looking into a replacement. Everything is a mess!

[GailA]

Give Granny a Pain pill was a LIE too. Since botox face shoved it on us Pain meds are being restricted and will be artificially short supplied. And Grasley had his hand in on it too.

Shortage of pain meds
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/4/13166594/dea-opioid-epidemic-manufacturer-2017-substance-abuse

Grassley Pursues Prescription Drug Abuse in Medicaid, Medicare-
http://www.cchrstl.org/wordpress/2012/04/12/grassley-pursues-prescription-drug-abuse-in-medicaid-medicare/

Senate Watchdog Targets High-Prescribing Medicaid Docs-
https://www.propublica.org/article/senate-watchdog-targets-high-prescribing-medicaid-docs

[GailA]

You are joined by many others, even Michelle Malkin
Obama Lied. My Third Health Plan Just Died.

http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2016/10/12/obama-lied-my-third-health-plan-just-died-n2230966?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

[Tzimisce]

Exactly.

You voted for it America.

Enjoy it.