The newest anti Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) story going around is nothing less than a personal attack on President Obama -- and sadly, it seems that a lot of the mainstream media is falling for it. It concerns a promise that President Obama made when the Affordable Care Act was being passed. He told Americans that if they had insurance they liked, they would be able to keep it.
Now we are hearing that some Americans are getting notices from their insurance companies saying their policies are going to be cancelled and replaced with new policies -- and that those new policies may come with a higher premium cost. The story is being reported as though it will affect most Americans who have insurance. Is this true? Did the president lie?
First, we must realize that although their are some cancellations, it will only affect about 6% of all Americans -- those who have purchased policies on their own. Employer-provided insurance plans are not affected. Next we need to understand why those policies are being cancelled. They are being cancelled because they do not provide the basic coverages now required by law. In other words, they were junk policies that people were scammed into buying.
Some might now say that they were happy with those junk policies. If so, it's only because they were lucky enough to not get a serious illness and need those policies to pay out for that illness. If they had gotten that serious illness, they would have been shocked at what little coverage they had been paying for -- and they would have been left out in the cold while the insurance companies refused to pay for their medical expenses.
So, are all of that 6% going to have to pay more for their new policies? A few will, but at least half of them (or more) won't be paying even more -- and some may actually pay less. That's because the insurance companies must now pay out at least 80% of their premiums in actual medical costs for their consumers (which is already resulting in premium reductions in many states). And many of those who do see their current premium rise will be able to find a less expensive policy in the insurance exchange -- a policy with all of the basic coverages now required of all insurance policies.
The president didn't lie to anyone. He just assumed that people wouldn't want a policy that was junk insurance, and didn't even provide the basic coverages all Americans really need. He underestimated the greed of the insurance companies, and their willingness to scam Americans into buying junk insurance with little or no real coverages.
These few Americans may be upset right now, and a few may even have to pay a little more, but they will all now have real insurance with the coverage they will need when they get a serious illness.