The White House’s Obamacare fix is about to create a big mess

Washington Post ^ | November 14, 2013 | Sarah Kliff

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The president explained that this change is only for individual policyholders who purchase individual policies. This change does not affect group policyholders.

Who knows what it effects? He waves his wand and changes things at whim; he exempts groups, people have been laid off - had their hours cut, the U.S. economy is being strangled. There is no guarantee on anything with this. There is no law of the land in Obamaland. He has fundamentally changed this country.

[publius911]

I believe the Regime knows this and is still doing it to give Democrats political cover and blame the insurance companies when it doesn't work.

Whut??!!??

The Incompetent ones had 3 years to "get it right" (and failed.)

The insurance companies can reasonably claim to need at least half as long to fix his Fuster cluck!

[SpaceBar]

We are all supposed to breathe a collective sigh of relief because the captain has ordered the ship back up from the iceberg we just hit.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

How about buying insurance across state lines.

Have tax free healthcare accounts.

Go after lawsuit abuse.

[papertyger]

This guy is starting to make me miss Jimmy Carter.

[bigbob]

If what we’ve been hearing is true, that is, that some or most of these policies wer not profitable, then how likely is the insurance company to re-offer those policies amid all the other chaos? Or if they do, at what premium price?

Business does not like uncertainty. Yet Obamacare has generated uncertainty at levels never seen before.

But then, what does Obama know about business?

[DoodleDawg]

This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer systems for policies, rates, and eligibility, send notices to the policyholders via US Mail, send a very complex letter that describes just what the differences are between specific policies and Obamacare compliant plans, ask the consumer for their decision — and give them a reasonable time to make that decision — and then enter those decisions back into their systems without creating massive billing, claim payment, and provider eligibility list mistakes.

So then if the insurance companies decide that this is just not worth the trouble and decide not to reinstate the insured and resurrect the canceled policies then will the Obama administration try to place the blame on them? "We said you could keep your policies if you liked them but the greedy insurance companies said 'no'."

[loveliberty2]

If there are any Democrats remaining in the Party who understand and love the principles which made America the "land of the free and the home of the brave," as is so often sung in their presence, then they will rebel against the very idea that any President has the Constitutional authority to "administratively" change a law in order to save Democrats from his and their dishonest and fraudulent promises.

Further, Obama, Clinton, Landrieu, Feinstein, Hagan and all the other so-called "progressive" regressives who propose a "fix" in order to save political "seats" simply are not being honest themselves about the real problem though:

The problem is that the "fix" just involves more coercive intrusion on the rights of individuals, on intrusion into and distortion of the insurance marketplace, on the future quality and proliferation of health care providers, and the damaging impact that their own regressive and arrogant assumptions is having on real individual American citizens and their families.

Just who do the Clintons, the Obamas, the Landrieus, the Feinsteins and all "progressives"--no matter how good they believe their intentions are--believe they are? That great intellectual freedom fighter, Author of the Declaration of Independence, and former President may have, inadvertently, identified them in the following quotation:

"The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately." —Thomas Jefferson

One other thought: lest the Democrats who laid this oppressive legislation on the nation by their votes now claim that they did it to "help" us and it is just "not working" as they intended, let them consider the words of C. S. Lewis about "moral busybodies" who use the coercive power of government to "do" their good:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C. S. Lewis

[AU72]

And that doesn't include the time it would take to calculate and develop actuarial pricing matrices

I can imagine the underwriters at the healthcare company where I work are pulling their hair out as we speak, except they're already bald by now.

[alloysteel]

Sure the Washington Com-Post got it “right”.

But it is not as if they did not KNOW, a long time ago, that the avalanche, once started, is now impossible to stop.

The logical response by the American people would be to refuse to take ANY overage that did not their personal needs. But it is no longer possible to tailor coverage to direct and perceived needs, the bundle of mandates and “minimum requirements” must be included in EVERY policy, or that policy cannot be offered to anybody.

The insurance companies have made changes to comply with the law, and they cannot reverse course now. First, they are not prone to break the law as it presently stands, and secondly, just the sheer magnitude of recreating all the old policies, legal or not, is a study in bureaucratic inertia and clashing priorities.

There is no “fix” for the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010”. Repeal is the only logical and fiscally sound course to follow.

But logic and fiscally sound policy have long since left the room.

[lodi90]

The man-child he is asking for the impossible. The insurance companies need to refuse to play the game and dump this right back on the White Hut.

[publius911]

It is just a Con so Obama can blame the insurance companies for people losing their coverage

I don't see how he can.
Tens of millions already have LOST THEIR PLANS. BEFORE THIS PUERILE, IMPOSSIBLE FIX!

THE OBAMA FIX!!!

[pax_et_bonum]

I believe the Regime knows this and is still doing it to give Democrats political cover and blame the insurance companies when it doesn’t work.

***

I don’t think this plan will work.

Americans who value health insurance know that the Dems passed the law.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this whole Obamacare tail has been pinned on the donkey and I think it’s gonna stay stuck.

[tflabo]

Thats so good—Lord of the Lies.. thumbs up!

[jumpingcholla34]

After this whole fiasco implodes, these clowns will announce that the insurance industry has failed and it’s time to go to a single payer system. Didn’t Harry Reid say that was the goal all along?

[SteveH]

my concern is that institutions such as pension funds might invest in insurance companies. Obviously this announcement seriously destabilizes insurance companies. Has someone in the WH done the calculus to ensure that the Democrat voter base is unaffected by this destabilization? The potential ramifications are so large that it seems to carry into Cloward Piven...

[RayChuang88]

To the people on the Left: Obamacare is a disaster from the get-go, and we should just drop the whole idea altogether. How about replacing it with allowing health insurers to sell insurance policies across state lines on a regional basis, which would actually create REAL competition to lower premium costs?

[publius911]

HEY!

I thought "The Great Uniter," "The second smartest man in the world" would have everything "fixed" by the end of November!

Win The Future?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

[diverteach]

They are just kicking this can down the road till next year. Lets just pretend insurance companies magically can get all the policies that were to expire Jan 1st extended for a year as Oblunder proposed this morning. Insurance companies will be re-sending out cancellation notices again next year just prior to the elections. I can’t see how this doesn’t do more damage to democrats seeking reelection.

[cyberaxe]

...and the piece de resistance...

...when all this finally sinks the insurance industry...

...the bottom will fall out of our 401k's etc...

....FMGWACS....