Panic: Desperate Democrats Propose Law to Restore Obama's 'Keep Your Plan' Pledge

Townhall ^ | 10/31/13 | Guy Benson

[Libloather]

The firestorm over President Obama's "you can keep your plan" lie now threatens to singe vulnerable Democrats next year, so they're springing into action to try to force the administration to keep its word. Louisiana's Mary Landrieu -- an ardent Obamacare supporter -- is scrambling to undo one of the obvious consequences of a law she's voted to pass, fund, and retain:

Sen. Mary Landrieu said Wednesday she would propose legislation to ensure all Americans could keep their existing insurance coverage under Obamacare, a fresh sign of the political problems the law’s rollout has created for congressional Democrats. Landrieu, a Democrat who faces a tough reelection in Louisiana in 2014, said she would either offer her own bill or formally sign onto another measure that would ensure that the law would not force anyone off of their existing health policies. “The promise was made, and it should be kept,” Landrieu said in the Capitol Wednesday. “And it was our understanding when we voted for that bill that people when they have insurance could keep with what they had. So I’m going to be working on that fix.”

[chiefqc]

Such as it is in the mindless world of the sock puppets.

The sock puppet master, mac daddy the worlds greatest liar, craps in the mouth of his expendable sock puppet underlings, harry reid and plastic face nancy indicating what he wants them to say and then they crap in the mouths of the stupid senate and house dumb-o-crats indicating what they are to say and mac daddy waltz away with NO ACCOUNTABILITY OR AWARENESS of anything about anything.

It appear that we have elected a POTUS who’s main functions in office are to take vacation, have parties, play golf, screw the American people, take credit for thing that go correct and then deny awareness of those that grow wrong.

WHAT A GREAT AND RESPONSIBLE POTUS WE ARE BURDENED WITH.

[skinkinthegrass]

TOO late, some states like VA, KY, ID
..make these $h!tmonger pay very dearly.

Retire these Gutless Old Party B@$@$D$; don't show
them any respect for their previous actions / deeds.
BOOT ' EM ALL OUT!

Support Matt Blevins, Defeat Sen. *itch "Mumbles" McConnell. *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support JD Winteregg, Defeat (SotH) Rep. John *HIC! / HIC!* Boehmer. *(D.C.-GOP / E)

Support Linda Vega, Defeat John Cornyn *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Joe Carr, Defeat Lamar Alexander *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Lee Bright, Defeat Lindsey Graham *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Chris McDaniel, Defeat Thad Cochran *(D.C.-GOP / E)
Support Dr. Milton Wolf, Defeat Pat Roberts *(D.C.-GOP / E)

*District of Criminals-Gutless Old Party / E$tabli$hment

[DJ Frisat]

Ah, the "You Can Keep Your Healthcare Policy Until I'm Re-elected, and Then We'll Screw You Over Act of 2013".

No thanks. You designed it, you go down with the ship.

[justa-hairyape]

So the plans being cancelled because they are too cheap and do not allow Obama’s Crony Fascists to get their cut ?

[Greysard]

Not too late, they can move to reinstate them any time.

And who is going to pay millions of dollars for the work that was done to remove those plans first, and then to reinstate them? It's not just the CEO scribbling a few plans on a napkin - it takes a lot of human labor to cancel plans of tens of millions and offer them something else that would be their best option. Just USPS costs of 50 million envelopes would be about 20 million dollars, not even counting the contents. And then there will be replies, so you need to man the phones... It's a lot of money that had been already spent (wasted,) and insurance companies, contrary to democratic beliefs, aren't made of money. In the end the customer always pays for everything. Those old plans and old prices aren't coming back; they were possible only when the system was running smoothly.

[kabar]

Some plans are terminating on 12/31/2013 and pushing people into exchanges or told to get other coverage beginning 1/1/2014.

Right, most of those are the individual plans. The employer mandate was postponed a year so they will not be fined if they don't have people covered in a conforming plan or if they choose to drop their health plans. It will be the employers, not the insurance companies, that will tell them they can no longer get their healthcare plan from the employer, but rather from the exchanges or directly from the insurance companies.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that a sizable number of employers will drop their health plans and just pay the fines. Most businesses want to decouple health care from employer provided benefits. Here is what the employer mandate (postponed to Jan 1, 2015) says:

Beginning in 2015, employers with 50+ full-time employees or full-time equivalents must offer medical coverage that is "affordable" and provides minimum value to full-time employees and their children up to age 26 or face penalties.

Coverage is “affordable” if employee contributions are less than 9.5% of:

Employee's W-2 wages

Employee’s monthly wages (hourly rate x 130 hours per month),

OR

Federal Poverty Level for a single individual

A plan must pay 60% of the cost of covered health services to provide "minimum value."

Employer Penalties

This chart summarizes the coverage requirements and the penalties that apply if any full-time employee purchases coverage on an exchange and receives a federal premium assistance tax credit. The penalties will be adjusted in future years.

[mosesdapoet]

In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Panic: Desperate Democrats Propose Law to Restore Obama’s ‘Keep Your Plan’ Pledge, Diana in Wisconsin wrote:
I thought Senator Ron Johnson (R, WI) already got the ball rolling on this???

He did, but it was only referenced on Charley Sykes show. I think the original release from Landrieu may have attributed a mention of Johnson but this is what happens when it’s given to the major wire services.

[jsanders2001]

Dems haven’t done enough already? They’re losing voters left and right because of Obamacare and its implications. I think they’ve started figuring out they’re in for “change” alright and it’s not pretty unless you’re willing to bow down to Allah 3 times a day.

[CityCenter]

These plans are in effect until January. It would take little to no effort to keep them in force.

[A CA Guy]

Rather than go down they may say the whole thing is all screwed up, sent the insurance company fools to the gas ovens and we go single payer NOW.

This President has NO SHAME.

[jsanders2001]

> Don’t fix it, NIX IT!!!

I like it!

[kcvl]

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.

[Jane Long]

Don't fix it, NIX IT!!!

Amen!!

[princess leah]

For ONCE, the REPUBLICAN PARTY NEEDS to get AHEAD of the talking points here and say “HEY, Let’s offer up the RIGHT solution starting NOW: We give EMPLOYERS a credit back and they pass the savings in a MEDICAL ACCT to their employees and employees can go out and get their own plan OR JUST keep the money (OH Say $750/00 - same as the fine) and say TO HELL with OBAMACARE - we don’t want our freedom infringed by the FEDERAL GOV’T who CANNOT EVEN GET THE DAM THING RUNNING to BEGIN WITH!!!!

[Alas Babylon!]

Not for those who are on group plans provided by employers.

Unless I misread you, Kabar, this is not true. It ALSO includes about HALF of those with group plans covered by their company, too. You did read your quote above, didn't you?

“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.

Let me just say that this is one NEW, BIG fact! Yesterday, Carney said 5%. Another damn lie!

[noinfringers2]

I have observed this kind of ripost of laws many times from Local to Federal governments. Lawmakers sometimes out of plain ignorance or stupidity or cleverness let staffs implement laws to staffs desires.

[kabar]

by then he hopes there would be total destruction of private sector insurance

Not really. They will survive even if we have single payer. We will just have a two tier system like they have in the UK--public and private. In Germany, having private insurance puts you at the head of the line and also access to better doctors and hospitals.

We already have single payer healthcare: Medicaid (70 million including the CHIPs program) and Medicare (47 million). With 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day for the next 20 years, the Medicare rolls will double. As I indicated, 9 out of 10 Medicare recipients have supplemental insurance. It is the reason why AARP backed Obamacare.

The insurance companies are not dumb. They supported Obamacare with their eyes wide open. They will survive. The more people forced into the exchanges, the better off they will be. The insurance companies supported Obamacare because of the individual mandate, which forces people to buy their product. And even if the premiums rise, so will the subsidies. I have no sympathy for the insurance companies or Big Pharma who supported Obamacare and spent big bucks advocating it.

It is similar to the student loan programs that enables colleges to continue increasing tuition. It is easy to borrow the money thus perpetuating the system. Subsidies will do the same thing until the country collapses under the weight of the debt. Obamacare is an entitlement program just like Medicare and Social Security.

[Jacquerie]

What kind of idiot would ever design a Constitution like that?

Those dead, white, framing dudes were nuts.

[MortMan]

One cannot keep a plan that is illegal under the law.

Scrap the law. Period.

[SoothingDave]

All that, and the insurance companies set rates and other terms based upon their expected costs and revenues. Actuarial work. They have been setting up for next year based on a set of rules in the law. To change that all now is not just a matter of sending out new notices. They would have to rush to try to figure out numbers for their entire business model in a market which is now in turmoil.

It’s a complete mess.