Posted on 11/15/2013 8:54:17 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
WALTHAM - U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Friday defended President Barack Obama’s decision to allow health insurers to issue plans for one more year that do not meet the standards set out by the Affordable Care Act, as a transitional move.
“What the president’s done is said no one for a year, no insurance company, needs to cancel its coverage because of the Affordable Care Act,” Warren said, speaking to reporters after an Associated Industries of Massachusetts breakfast at the Westin Hotel in Waltham. “They’re trying to make the transition work. They’re trying to do everything they can to make it work and get people into the system.”
However, asked whether individuals should be able to keep their current insurance plans indefinitely if they do not meet the minimum standards laid out by the Affordable Care Act, Warren did not say yes or no, but implied that she agreed with the changes required by the new law. “I think what we’re looking for is to get people coverage that means something,” Warren said. “We do not sell cars with three wheels. We sell cars that travel on our highways and that have some basic standards of safety. And that’s what we’re talking about with insurance, making sure that if people are paying for insurance, they’re getting some insurance.”
Warren’s statement echoed Obama’s comments in a speech on health care he gave in Boston last month, in which the president referred to the plans that were cancelled as “cut rate plans that don’t offer real financial protection in the event of serious illness or accident.”
Obama, a Democrat, announced the policy change Thursday, in an attempt to quell rising anger from consumers who bought health insurance on the individual market and whose plans were being cancelled because they did not meet the minimum coverage standards set out by the national health care reform law. Obama had said previously that anyone who liked their health care plan would be able to keep it. But that statement only applied to plans that had been unchanged since 2010. Although consumers whose plans were cancelled were able to shop for new plans, and sometimes obtain subsidies, on newly created health insurance exchanges, some were finding that those plans cost significantly more.
Under the president’s new policy, state insurance commissioners and individual insurers will be able to decide whether to continue to offer cancelled plans for one year to existing customers. Insurers will not be allowed to sell the plans to new consumers. It is unclear how many insurers will continue to offer these plans, but the change will allow Obama to say that the Affordable Care Act is no longer blocking anyone from keeping their current insurance plan.
“Basically, what the president has said is that no insurance company will be forced to cancel insurance because of Obamacare during the next year, so that’s going to give people a smoother place,” Warren said. “But at the same time making clear to people that they have very limited coverage and that they may have options available to them that are both more affordable and that give them much better protection.”
Asked whether Obama can make the change without Congress, Warren said, “He’s got some capacity in the transition to try to smooth it out.” Obama made the proposal when he did to preempt a Friday vote on a House Republican proposal, which was gaining some Democratic support, that would not only allow existing customers to keep their cancelled plans but would allow new people to buy those plans.
A day after Obama acknowledged that the administration “fumbled the rollout” of the health care law, Warren said similarly that “there’s clearly been a problem with the rollout.” The other major issue that has plagued the rollout has been problems with healthcare.gov, the national website that controls many of the states’ new health insurance exchanges, although not Massachusetts’. The administration has said the site, which went live Oct. 1, is expected to be working smoothly only by the end of November.
Warren said the site is “getting better.” “They tell us they’re going to have it basically completely functional by the end of the month,” she said. “And I think that’s going to be the key to it. It’s going to be the way that people without insurance are able to get health insurance, affordable health insurance, insurance that will cover them.”
Squaw Warren dig heap deep hole.
Coming to the aid of their Party, err Leader.
And under what authority can he do that unilaterally, Geronigenius?
white hag speak um fork tongue
Needs to be put in said deep hole.
Let all the Dems keep digging for a few months then fill it in.
They deserve each other.
.
Been sippin’ fire water!
Followers of brazen hacks like Hoyer, Pelosi, Reid, Durbin, Shumer, and the greatest brazen hack of them all, Obama, must reconcile and rationalize these new lies daily. At some point, support for this party of mendacity must decline. If it doesn't, your great free republic is doomed.
Democrats sit around constantly asking each what **lie** they can tell to make the public like them for another few minutes...
Fake black man, meet fake Indian.
Jeeze, you still on this?
Obama has fixed the problem by giving that press conference.
Now he bears zero responsibility for any canceled health care policy anywhere in USA. He told them its OK to keep them.
Now every thing that goes wrong is the greedy Health insurance companies fault.
(Liz) Warren in 2016 !
YES WE CAN!
Two people who surpassed Bubba on the fraud meter.
Carpetbagger Scott Brown just canceled the moving trucks for New Hampshire.
I’ve heard if you fold the carton just right, the Land o’ the Lakes Indian maiden becomes bare-breasted. Of course I’ve never tried this myself ...
Politics: acting for ugly people. The more I know about these people, the more appreciation I have for my bulldogs.
I wonder if MSNBC’s Martin Bashir wants to p*ss and sh*t in Elizabeth Warren’s mouth like he does Sarah Palin’s.
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