Posted on 11/12/2013 7:01:51 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Amazing stuff via Mediaite. The “Keep Your Plan Act” is Fred Upton’s bill, which Jay Carney spent a few minutes attacking at today’s press briefing because it would make canceled plans available to all consumers, not just the ones who’d been enrolled in those plans before. That would be a disaster for the insurance industry. Healthy people would flee the new, more expensive plans for the resurrected cheaper ones, leaving no one in the new risk pool except sick people with very expensive treatments. That means either heavy losses for insurers, steep premium hikes next year to make up the difference, or some sort of federal bailout (congrats, red-state Democrats!) — or maybe a little of all three. You’ll have the same problem, though, albeit to a lesser extent, even if Upton’s bill is amended so that it applies only to people who’d been enrolled in a particular plan before it was cancelled. You can’t run a two-tiered healthy/sick insurance system. If the risk pools aren’t merged, replete with higher rates for the former, you can’t pay for the latter.
I understand why the GOP would back Upton’s bill. It’s a slam dunk politically, grinding Obama’s face in the consequences of his lie. This is the Democrats’ mess; Reid and the Senate can/will kill the bill if they like. I can’t understand why House Democrats, aware of the adverse selection problem that’s lurking here — and the political humiliation for the White House — would sign on, unless they’ve already reached a point of such pure terror over the “if you like your plan” backlash that they’re willing to kneecap ObamaCare six weeks out of the gate. Did they … not understand that millions of people were going to face cancellations and higher premiums under the law’s redistributive scheme? Of course they did. Steny Hoyer, number two in the Democratic caucus admitted it on October 29th. Fast forward two weeks and here’s where Hoyer is now:
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do on the Upton bill,” the Maryland Democrat said at a Tuesday briefing with reporters when discussing legislation sponsored by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.
Hoyer noted that he was “inclined not to be for the Upton bill at this time,” but he emphasized that he was “not closed to the option,” and would “reserve judgment” until he had seen the legislative text, which is reportedly undergoing some tweaks.
“I agree that people who purchased their policies prior to [the law's enactment date] ought to be able to keep their policies,” he said.
If he agrees that they should be able to keep their policies, why did he vote for ObamaCare? The whole point of the law is that healthy middle-class people shouldn’t be allowed to keep policies that have relatively low premiums. We need to gouge those suckers with higher premiums for new “comprehensive” plans so that we can pay for the preexisting conditions of the sick. It’s like voting for immigration reform and then feigning surprise in five years when the newly “secure” border hasn’t halted illegal immigration. It’s not supposed to do that. That’s something you tell the hoi polloi in order to give Congress enough cover to vote for it.
The vote on Upton’s bill is set for Friday, which, per CNN’s source on the Hill, means the White House has 48 hours or so to come up with its own proposal for letting people keep their plans — adverse selection problem or not — before Democrats head for the lifeboats. Greg Sargent claims that the Democratic leadership is now warning the rank and file that rich liberal donors won’t look kindly at them if they abandon The One on his big “accomplishment.” I’ll leave you with this, just to show that the fear isn’t limited to Dems in red states. After a million cancellations, even DiFi’s nervous:
Feinstein: "I have decided to cosponsor Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) legislation: Keeping the Affordable Care Act Promise Act."
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Oh....so NOW he wants to see what's in a bill.
How’s this gonna work? Some people are gonna, somehow, be grandfathered in and anyone who gets a new plan gets raped, financially speaking? I just don’t see how this can work.
Put enough *poison pills* in it to effectively kill it.
If we had Republican leadership worth a crap, that's what they would do.
Rats are in a bind, tighten up on the bastards, don't let them off the hook.
I keep remembering this video where this woman defending Obamacare saying that if it’s not passed people will be dying in the streets. First off you have to buy it. Secondly it’s insurance not care. You have to go to a hospital or doctor that will take it, and finally, you have to prove you paid in like $ 6500 in deductible before you’d get so-called “free care”. Those Liberal morons didn’t see this coming and it’ll be a hoot to listen to them scream!
All these focktards should RESIGN.
YOU LIE DIFI
How do you reinstate a policy that no longer exist…each state insurance regulator would have to get involved..
“The Walking Dead reelected their Kenyan boy last year...”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I told my wife that “The Walking Dead” is actually a metaphor for what is really happening in this country. We have been overrun by the walking BRAINdead! A person who is incapable of managing his or her own life and there are many of those who have a triple digit IQ, should not have the same vote as someone who actually contributes to the upkeep of the world.
I think the problem now is the policies are not legal, so if they vote on a “keep your policy” law, it won’t mean anything, unless they change their law. If the law was stopped, I think everything would stay the way it is. None of the policies actually cancel until after the first of the year.
I’m calling bullshit on this whole thing. Obama isn’t running for re-election, and at this point I don’t think he gives a rat’s rear end what anyone thinks about him or the ACA. He’s just dying to get out of Washington for good so he can do some serious full-time golfing in Hawaii. Obama will veto this if comes anywhere near him, meanwhile all these Democrats will get to boast about their “courage” in voting for this bill.
We’ve already seen the emerging Democrat strategy in Bill Clinton’s interview this week. They’re all going to throw Obama under the bus, promoting themselves and Hillary as the rational alternative. A new form of the Limbaugh theorem.
John Kerry should lead crusade. They were for it before they were against it..’
New sudden laws to fix the OLD s sudden laws.
Which no one read.
Which were passed AT MIDNIGHT.
On Christmas Eve.
Laws all ‘round...! On the house!
The fire burns higher. And higher. The Democrats are a bonfire.
‘Horses Back In the Barn Act!’
See? SEE? THIS is why I LOVE my fellow Freepers, LOL!
A taxpayer-funded bailout of the ObamaCare insurance companies is already a provision of the law if there aren’t enough enrollees. The HHS gets to dole out the bailout money.
Details:
http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_briefs/2012/rwjf72568
And they, the Walking Braindead, can vote. Most do so more than once. This country is in heap big trouble.
* this * crusade
P.S. There is NO CEILING to the BAILOUT funds that HHS can dole out to the insurance companies. They are part of the existing law and not subject to congressional appropriation.
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