By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--January 13, 2014
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When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies. But, according to industry analysts, insurers and state regulators, the disruption will be far greater, potentially affecting millions of people who receive insurance through small employers by the end of 2014. While some cancellation notices already have gone out, insurers say the bulk of the letters will be sent in October, shortly before the next open-enrollment period begins. The timing — right before the midterm elections — could be difficult for Democrats who are already fending off Republican attacks about the Affordable Care Act and its troubled rollout.
Some of the small-business cancellations are occurring because the policies don’t meet the law’s basic coverage requirements. But many are related only indirectly to the law; insurers are trying to move customers to new plans designed to offset the financial and administrative risks associated with the health-care overhaul. As part of that, they are consolidating their plan offerings to maximize profits and streamline how they manage them.ObamaCare will get you one way or the other. Either your plan gets cancelled because it doesn't mean the minimum standards set by Obama, Reid and Pelosi (even though you were perfectly happy with it), or the additional cost burdens caused by the law prompts your employer to dump the plan you liked in favor of an alternative that will save it money - mostly like dumping you onto the exchanges. Ironically, you can actually envision the media spinning this as good news for ObamaCare, since more people getting their insurance cancelled could conceivably push ObamaCare toward the magical enrollment threshold of 7 million, as it appears the only way to get people to sign up is to take away all other options. The good news in this is the political timing, since cancellation letters sent out in October will make it a lot harder for Democrats to take ObamaCare off the table in the weeks leading up to the bloodbath we all hope the 2014 mid-terms will be. Just don't let that blood be yours, unless you're prepared to pay cash for the triage.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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