When President Obama’s healthcare law was winding its way through Congress back in 2009 and 2010, you heard this a lot:
"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." (Via The White House)
"If you like your insurance plan, keep that." (Via The White House)
"If you like what you're getting keep it, no one's forcing you to shift." (Via The White House)
Now, that sales pitch sounds an awful lot like an empty promise. The Affordable Care Act is reportedly forcing millions of insured Americans off their existing plans.
CBS has confirmed as many as 2 million people have already been told they're getting dropped. Some experts say that number could rise to 16 million.
Industry experts say many Americans will soon start receiving cancellation notices in the mail, if they haven't already. The reason — the current policies for their insurance companies don't meet the 10 minimum standards now mandated under the law. (Via Fox News)
— which include maternity care, emergency visits, mental health treatment and pediatric dental care. (Via Wikimedia Commons / Alex Proimos)
So, here’s the kicker — it appears the White House already knew this.
A recent NBC investigation found, "buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, '40 to 67 percent' of customers will not be able to keep their policy."
But as recently as the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama was telling voters they could keep their plans. Which has critics saying things like this: (Via ABC)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: "I would never on my key landmark piece of legislation tell the American people something that was diametrically opposed to the truth. Over and over and over and over and over again." (Via MSNBC)
But there’s more than one way to digest this, at least according to Obama administration officials.
On Twitter, senior advisor to the president Valerie Jarrett pointed out "Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans." (Via Twitter / @vj44)
True — but Obamacare is the very reason so many insurance companies are changing their policies in the first place. When asked about this, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t give any numbers on how many people might be dropped, but did acknowledge many insurance companies are canceling existing policies.
"The Affordable Care Act is built on the premise that health care is not a privilege, it's a right, and there should be minimum standards for the plans available to Americans …" (Via PBS)
The Obama administration argues many of those getting dumped from their plans will actually end up paying less under their new policies because thanks to federal subsidies. (Via CNN)
Problem is, with Healthcare.gov looking like this … it's tough to know who's eligible. (Via HealthCare.gov)
The administration says it expects issues with the website to be resolved by the end of November.
>> See more at: Newsy.com
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