Posted on 10/31/2013 1:01:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The White House is pressuring insurance companies not to speak publicly about Obama administration policies that could eliminate the existing health insurance plans of millions of Americans.
The administration made “clarifications” to the 2010 Affordable Care Act after it was passed that have already wiped out hundreds of thousands of existing health plans.
“Basically, if you speak out, if you’re quoted, you’re going to get a call from the White House, pressure to be quiet,” said CNN investigative reporter Drew Griffin on Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday night. Insurance companies executives, Griffin said, ask heads of consulting firms not to criticize the Obamacare rollout debacle publicly.
“They feel defenseless before the White House P.R. team,” Griffin said. “The sources said they fear White House retribution.”
Prior to the Obamacare rollout, insurance companies issued warnings to the White House about the possibility of mass cancellations, which the administration ignored.
Although the mass cancelations are an embarrassment to insurance companies, they are more concerned about losing their biggest customer — the federal government.
“Executives are willing to listen to the White House, because right now, it’s the government that’s the biggest customers of these insurance companies,” Griffin said. “Government-backed plans accounted for about 48 percent of healthcare policies last year, Anderson — a number that’s expected to grow this year, and years to come.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney, however, waved off the allegations.
“That accusation is preposterous and inaccurate,” Carney said. “Plus, it ignores the fact that every day, insurance companies are out talking about the law, in large part because they are trying to reach new customers who will now have new, affordable insurance options available from providers through the new marketplaces.”
Carney’s statement echoed similar remarks Obama made during a Wednesday speech, blaming “bad apple insurers” who tried to rip off customers for the cancelled plans.
The law itself provided protections for healthcare policies in effect on March 23, 2010 onwards with “grandfather” clauses, permitting customers to keep them even if they did not adhere to the new requirements. But the Health and Human Services department stripped away those provisions, writing regulations that eliminated health care plans whose copays, deductibles or benefits changed.
HHS’s unilateral rewrite will eliminate the health insurance plans of up to ten million Americans, NBC News reports. Despite insistent, endlessly repeated assurances from Obama and a supporting cast of Democrats, from before the law’s passage to the 2012 presidential election to the present, the Obama administration knew that millions of healthcare plans would vanish under its regulations.
The online exchanges’ severe systemic flaws have inflamed tensions between the insurance industry and the administration. A group of major insurance executives met with senior White House officials — including senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius — last Wednesday in a closed-door meeting, after the rollout of HealthCare.gov demonstrated all the graceful coordination of a multiple-car pileup.
The White House may have increased pressure on insurance companies to keep them operating within the federal exchanges. The companies must back out of the exchanges before Oct. 31 or be locked into them. according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contract governing the relationship between the companies and the government.
“The Chicago way. “
It’s the United States way, now.
He could massacre a troop of girl scouts on the White House lawn during the Easter Egg roll, butcher them, barbecue them and serve them to the participants and he still wouldn’t be impeached. And if you criticized him about it, the press would say “it’s a black thing” and accuse you of being a racist tea party rethuglican for bringing it up while licking their fingers and asking Michelle what kind of spice rub they’re using and ask for more macaroni & cheese and a refill of their kool-aid.
Smart insurers would bug their phone lines and keep recordings.
“interesting. wonder how many will pull out before then.”
I read in one of the many articles that the Administration had guaranteed the remaining companies would not lose any money. So, there is no incentive to leave the system. I thought there’d be a cascade of companies fleeing the system and it would collapse. But, apparently, that market option has been covered by crony capitalism.
tick..tick..tick...tick....
The Chicago Democrat way...threatening anyone who might threaten their scam.
Are these insurance execs men or mice? Inquiring minds want to know.
Why would anyone cooperate with the Feds? They want to put the insurers out of business and do away with all of their jobs.
F obama.
Seems to me the best defense is to band together and speak out. If you know your end is being orchestrated by powers that be, you stand a better chance to preserve your life and livelihood by taking a stand on liberty and the constitution... damn the cowards!
bttt
Spot on. The private health insurance industry is being taken to the gas chambers , then the ovens.
These insurance companies will fold like a cheap suit. I bet they “conform” before the weekend.
bingo.....sadly.
On you tube
Obama Admin using Chicago style thuggery to intimidate insurance execs to keep quiet about Obamacare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmf77du60Ic
It used to be called fraud and extortion, and at one time in America, along with being a traitor to the Constitution, these acts were illegal.
The proper response if I were contacted by, let alone threatened by the White House would be: “FU” for the contact and “Bring it On” if threatened.
Obamacare is just one of many problems this government has.
I really hope we head down the slippery slope of a massive civil disobedience or better yet another civil war.
Government needs to wake up and understand they work for us, not the other way around.
Obamacare takes hundreds of what was available after tax income for food, services and clothing and makes it go away for health care. Look for less purchases causing major firings and reductions in the size of the economy.
i don’t know why they’d trust any guarantee from the obama admin. not after what they’ve been put through by them.
there's got to be a special circle of hell for people who can spin this way
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