In other words, the ACA did make
it incredibly hard for insurers to continue plans for the millions of
Americans who don’t want comprehensive insurance — financially, insurers
almost certainly had to adjust them in such a way that they would lose
grandfathered status. This isn’t “normal turnover in the insurance
market” (though there is plenty of that in the individual market);
there’s a reason why an exceptionally large number of Americans are
getting cancellation notices this fall.
And it might even be more deliberate than that: Jim Capretta points me to this post from Doug Badger, which suggests that this isn’t actually how the law was written in the first place. The infamous grandfather section reads as follows: “Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed to require that an individual terminate coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which such individual was enrolled on the date of enactment of this Act.” In other words, if you like your health-care plan, you can keep it. But then the Obama administration went about making it impossible, by issuing the regulations described above in June of 2010, in which it explained:
The Affordable Care Act as written and passed would have protected the grandfathered plans for a longer period of time and with more freedom for adjustment, but the Obama administration filled out the Secretary Shalls in such a way as to make that much harder, if not basically impossible, to do. The Obama administration’s original, June 2010 rules were actually even stricter, and would have, for example, made it impossible for an insurer or company to change the firms it uses to manage and administer the plan (which needn’t affect coverage and is a simple way to lower costs); those ludicrous restrictions were eliminated, but enough rules remain that it’s, again, near impossible to maintain a grandfathered health-care plan.
And it might even be more deliberate than that: Jim Capretta points me to this post from Doug Badger, which suggests that this isn’t actually how the law was written in the first place. The infamous grandfather section reads as follows: “Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed to require that an individual terminate coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which such individual was enrolled on the date of enactment of this Act.” In other words, if you like your health-care plan, you can keep it. But then the Obama administration went about making it impossible, by issuing the regulations described above in June of 2010, in which it explained:
The statute does not, however, address at what point changes to a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which an individual was enrolled on March 23, 2010 are significant enough to cause the plan or health insurance coverage to cease to be a grandfathered health plan, leaving that question to be addressed by regulatory guidance.
The Affordable Care Act as written and passed would have protected the grandfathered plans for a longer period of time and with more freedom for adjustment, but the Obama administration filled out the Secretary Shalls in such a way as to make that much harder, if not basically impossible, to do. The Obama administration’s original, June 2010 rules were actually even stricter, and would have, for example, made it impossible for an insurer or company to change the firms it uses to manage and administer the plan (which needn’t affect coverage and is a simple way to lower costs); those ludicrous restrictions were eliminated, but enough rules remain that it’s, again, near impossible to maintain a grandfathered health-care plan.
1 comment:
nice blog.
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