Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Health Insurance > Health Insurance

White House takes on coverage loss stories

By Allison Bell

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

The Obama administration says media reports about consumers losing “plans they like” are giving an incomplete picture of what’s really happening.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said today during a press briefing that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will have no effect on the uninsured, and no effect on the ability of consumers to keep Medicare coverage, Medicaid coverage, employer-sponsored coverage or Veterans benefits.

“So, what we’re talking about here is the 5 percent in the country who currently purchase insurance on the individual market,” Carney said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

The individual market “has been like the Wild West,” Carney said. 

Before PPACA came along, he said, individual carriers in many states could jack up premiums, change plans or eliminate plans at will.

Consumers can still keep “grandfathered” individual policies that have remained largely unchanged since PPACA was enacted, even if those grandfathered policies fail to meet PPACA standards, Carney said.

But, in many cases, insurers have changed the plans too much for the plans to qualify for grandfather status, Carney said.

Carney said many of the people who bought cheap policies with skimpy benefits will find that they qualify for PPACA subsidies, and that they can use the subsidies to buy better coverage through the exchange system for a lower price.

One press report featured a Florida woman who was afraid of losing her non-grandfathered plan. 

“What the report didn’t say is that her plan doesn’t cover her for hospital visits,” Carney said. “She goes to the hospital, she goes bankrupt. That’s not quality insurance coverage.”

Although consumers can keep individual policies with grandfather status, the government has no ability to force insurers to continue to offer those plans, and, in some cases, insurers prefer to cover customers with new policies that do meet the PPACA coverage standards, Carney said.

See also:

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.