HUFFINGTON POST: President Barack Obama on Thursday asked health insurance companies to allow individuals whose current plans have been canceled due to the Affordable Care Act to renew them for a year.
Obama addressed the issue in a speech in the White House briefing room as a small but growing number of restive congressional Democrats join the Republican chorus that legislation is needed to preserve the policies being eliminated. The House is scheduled to vote Friday on a bill sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would permit health insurers to extend these health plans. In the Senate, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and others are backing similar bills to address the canceled plans…
Insurers will be required to disclose to customers that these new plans won’t include the new consumer protections in the law and explain that alternatives are available on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges, and that tax credits to cut the cost of private insurance are only available on the exchanges. Insurance companies will also have to tell consumers that they may qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people. State health insurance regulators are being asked to permit the administration’s new policy, a senior White House official said.… (more)
