Americans may be able to keep their individual insurance plans for one more year, under a fix offered by President Obama on Thursday to address a controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act.
The deal is meant to mollify millions of people enraged after their insurers canceled policies that do not meet Obamacare requirements. The uproar has ensnared the White House for weeks, shining a spotlight on Obama’s previous promise that people who liked their insurance plans can keep them.
“This fix won’t solve every problem for every person” but it will help many, the President said at the White House. “We are going to do everything we can to help Americans who’ve received these cancellation notices.”
But the fix, as reported earlier by CNN’s Dana Bash, puts the onus of the renewals on insurers. The administration is not requiring insurers or state insurance commissioners to extend the existing plans, but instead is allowing insurers to offer an additional year of coverage.
Also, insurers must notify policyholders of the difference in benefits between their policies and the Obamacare plans available on the insurance exchanges. And the companies must inform people that additional policies are available on the exchanges and that subsidies may be available to those who qualify.
The launch of the Affordable Care Act has so far been marred by major technological problems with both the federal and state enrollment websites.
Obama admitted the problems in his comments. “We fumbled the roll out on this health care law,” he said.
The administration reported Wednesday that fewer than 27,000 Americans selected an insurance plan through the federal healthcare.gov site, which is handling enrollment for 36 states. And the site is still far from fully operational, leaving tech experts racing to get it working by month’s end, as the administration promised.
State regulators concerned about impacts
Not long after Obama’s speech Thursday, an association of state insurance regulators said it was concerned that the decision could drive premiums higher.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which represents Connecticut Commissioner Thomas Leonardi and 49 others, said the decision would be a detriment to the insurance marketplace.
“This decision continues different rules for different policies and threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond,” the NAIC said in a statement.
The group also noted that it remains unclear how the reversal can be practicably implemented, now that cancellation notices have gone out to many and rates have been approved for 2014.
Leonardi released this statement: “The department is carefully examining the full effect that this change would have on all Connecticut policyholders. The ACA is an expansive and complex law built on myriad consumer protections and any change deserves careful and thoughtful analysis.”
The insurance industry said it had similar concerns to the commissioner’s group.
“If due to these changes fewer younger and healthier people choose to purchase coverage in the exchange, premiums will increase in the marketplace and there will be fewer choices for consumers,” Karen Ignagni, president of industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement. “Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers.”
Hartford-based Aetna — one of the nation’s largest health insurers — told Reuters Thursday that it will need cooperation from state regulators across the country on policies and rates to bring cancelled plans back into existence.
“We support efforts to allow people to keep what they have. However, we will need cooperation and expedited approval from state regulators to remove barriers that would make it difficult to make this change in such a short period of time,” Aetna told Reuters.
