Sources involved in the creation of President Obama’s signature law, the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, say that 50 to 75 percent of people who currently buy health insurance on their own will have their policies canceled within the next year. The sources also say the administration has known that would be the case for at least three years, according to a new report from NBC News.
The sources say despite the administration’s stance that if Americans like their healthcare plan they can keep it, most of the 14 million consumers who buy insurance individually will be getting a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies do not meet the standards mandated by the new health care law.
The network says one “expert” surmises it could be up to 80 percent of the 14 million consumers, many of whom will suffer what he called “sticker shock” from the price of their new policies.
Read more from NBC News:
The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered.
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. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”
That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.
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