Free Republic

President Barack Obama had some bad news for the insurance company CEOs who met him at the White House: His “fix” might cost them. Obama asked the CEOs to reinstate millions of Americans’ health insurance plans that were cancelled because they fell short of coverage requirements under the law, according to two executives who attended the session Friday. The president offered the execs some sweeteners, but admitted they won’t necessarily add up to enough to cover the full brunt of added costs that the changes to the insurance market could create. The president’s proposed “fix” to the wave of plan...

Siding with Minnesota health insurers, Gov. Mark Dayton said Monday that the state won't follow President Barack Obama's lead and let people renew individual health insurance policies that don't comply with the federal Affordable Care Act. The governor made his announcement in response to a letter Monday from Julie Brunner of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, a trade group that argued that letting consumers maintain coverage likely would result in fewer young and healthy people buying coverage through MNsure, the state's new health insurance exchange. The absence of those consumers, Brunner wrote, could drive up costs and reduce options...

The D.C. city government has named Chester A. McPherson as the new acting insurance commissioner, days after the former commissioner was fired following his statement against the White House’s administrative fix on cancelled insurance plans. McPherson, the acting commissioner, had been the deputy commissioner of market operations at the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking since August 2011. The city announced McPherson’s appointment in a press release and said he would begin immediately but made no mention of predecessor William A White’s departure.

The District of Columbia’s insurance commissioner says he was fired after questioning President Obama’s plan to fix ObamaCare and saying the city might not follow his suggestions. Commissioner William White told The Washington Post on Saturday that he was called into Mayor Vincent Gray’s office the prior day and told the Democratic mayor “wants to go in a different direction.” -snip- City officials have not commented on the situation, saying they cannot discuss personnel issues.

President Obama continues to miss the mark. Federal law already prohibits insurance companies from cancelling policies, and his “fix” is a flop. Millions of insurance policies are being cancelled throughout the country, as reports confirm. Democrats were aware this would happen under the new Obamacare law. However, these millions of insurance policies should never have been cancelled. Federal law prohibits their cancellation. In an interview with The Washington Times, C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance and Obamacare expert in Illinois, explains that the HIPAA law section 2742 (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) does not permit these insurance...