Obama: "If You Like The (Health) Plan You Are In, You Can Keep It" (Except If You Can't)
John C. Goodman blogs at The Independent Institute about that oft-repeated pledge by the President -- a pledge that seems to be crap for a majority of people. Here's why:
Your Employer May Be Forced to Switch to Another PlanIn general, if employers make very few changes to their current plan, that plan will be grandfathered. But most plans will be unable to qualify for grandfather status. A government memorandum makes the following predictions:
*More than half of all employees with employer-provided health insurance will have to switch to a more expensive, more regulated plan, and the number may be as high as two-thirds.*Among those who will be required to switch plans, as many as 80 percent are employees in small businesses.
*Within three years, more than 100 million people will be forced into a health plan more costly and more regulated than the one they have today.
*Moreover, grandfathering is only a temporary phenomenon. The memorandum suggests that eventually all plans will lose their grandfather status.
It's also possible that your employer will drop coverage altogether. (Of course, health care should have been untied from the workplace, since few people today stay in a job for more than a few years -- causing a health insurance mess for them when they leave...if they can leave.) Goodman continues:
Most employers will be required to offer health insurance or pay a fine. But since the fine will be as little as one-seventh the cost of the insurance, many employers--especially small employers--may drop their coverage. This will force you and other employees to go to a health insurance exchange for your health insurance. To a modest degree, this has already happened in Massachusetts,[3] with a similar health reform law, and the reaction is likely to be more pronounced in other states.
There's even more Obamacare fun to come that he lays out at the link.
this sort of thing only strikes one as strange IFF you assume that it wasn't the point all along to force people into public insurance exchanges.
I believe IT WAS the point all along to start herding people into what will be a single payer system... this is how you do it. Make an artificial emergency, make a government solution, never allow anything else.
QED.
SwissArmyD at January 30, 2013 1:25 PM
@Swiss: "I believe IT WAS the point all along to start herding people into what will be a single payer system... this is how you do it."
Wouldn't be at all surprised. I wonder how big the underground health care economy will be, and how seriously the government will take it.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at January 30, 2013 1:56 PM
I have a grandfathered plan. Basically they leave things the way they are and don't have to provide free physicals and well-child checks, free birth control, or any other freebies mandated under Obamacare. And if I read the email correctly when it went out about two years ago, it also gets exempted from a lot of the new taxes imposed on health care.
BunnyGirl at January 30, 2013 2:05 PM
My employer has switched our health insurance every year for the last four years. Each time, it's become more expensive and the coverage has gotten worse.
I agree with Swiss Army-- I think the whole point was to collapse the private insurance industry to force single payer.
Fifty Seven at January 30, 2013 2:10 PM
"If You Like The (Health) Plan You Are In, You Can Keep It"
Let [he] Be Perfectly Clear. *wags finger*
Of course this was BS.
But people bought it, didn't they?
Unix-Jedi at January 30, 2013 2:38 PM
Of course it was designed to push everyone towards single-payer. The backers of ACA weren't exactly shy about saying they wanted single-payer.
Wonder how things will work out once people figure out they can do without insurance and only pay a fine and still never be denied coverage?
I R A Darth Aggie at January 30, 2013 3:07 PM
But... But... Compelling new employment opportunities!
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at January 30, 2013 4:09 PM
Where I work, it's already happened. We've all been forced into a high-deductable plan that provides less coverage and is more expensive. That is, except for the employees who are government retirees or have spouses who work for the government. They get to keep their gold-plated government plans.
Cousin Dave at January 30, 2013 6:41 PM
I too could have kept mine. It would only have cost me an addition $5200 this year.
MarkD at January 31, 2013 5:32 AM
They switched us to a high deductible plan and fully funded our HSA. They said they are still saving 20% over last year.
nonegiven at January 31, 2013 7:16 AM
Cousin Dave:
If the HDP is more expensive, then they were subsidizing you heavily previously.
I Lurve the high deductible plan.
LURVE IT.
People don't like it, because "they have to pay". IOW: They *see* what it costs, and doesn't kick in until major issues.
Last year, with some problems, we hit our Max-out-of-pocket, at $6k. Total cost that insurance paid was well north of $70k.
My only problem was, having started a new job, hadn't fully funded the HSA, so some came really out of pocket. I'll fix that this year and max it out.
Most people get into trouble with HDP's by not putting at least the difference between the HDP and 'regular' insurance into a HSA.
With the family, my HDP costs me $80/month, "regular" insurance would be about $400.
Structurally, the HDP/HSA is wunderful. Because with the HSA, I'm spending MY MONEY. I see it going out. I can choose "hey, maybe that's not the best use of my money", or "GIMME".
Unix-Jedi at January 31, 2013 8:43 AM
"If the HDP is more expensive, then they were subsidizing you heavily previously."
In that case, I want the difference in my paycheck. But that ain't happening neither.
Cousin Dave at January 31, 2013 9:01 AM
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