Who can forget “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan?”
That didn’t work out well, did it?
Now, Obamacare, the law that keeps handing out more surprises than a Cracker Jack Box, is here with another surprise change to your plan. The Obama administration is now “considering” a regulation that will allow the government to automatically switch many healthcare insurance exchange plans.
Did you read the law? Probably not, like most people. Even if you did, you may have missed seeing all the shady things they can do with your insurance.
Now, it appears that most people enrolled through the exchanges do not revisit the exchange website after enrolling initially. You will soon discover that you are automatically re-enrolled in your current plan when the coverage expires.
Did you know that before you signed on, the bureaucrats have the “ability” (putting it in gentle terms) to move you into a cheaper plan “if” your current plan’s premiums rise.
Wait a minute – how likely is it that your premiums would remain fixed or fall. Obviously, there is no chance the would remain static.
State exchanges could be given an option to “provide” these choices in 2016, and the following year, federal exchanges would too. Anyone who applies for Obamacare, or already has Obamacare will then have no other choice. Can you still Barack Obama saying, “You can keep your plan.”
A Cato Institute report reiterates this sentiment. “The government would be effectively choosing their insurance plan, a far cry from the ‘if you like your plan you can keep it pledge.” It runs in the same vein as “I have some swamp land in Florida I’d like to sell you and you must buy it.”
Automatic renewal presents some potential problems. A majority of enrollees will pay more if they renew automatically, and people in the most popular insurance plan will see a premium rise averaging 9.5 percent.
68 percent of respondents to A new Gallup poll say they intend to renew their current plan.
The new “plans” are expected to hit participants in the wallet. Allowing enrollees to actually enroll in cheaper plans is another big headache that was never worked out. If they choose this option, they will most assuredly find a plan that does not offer current access to their personal physician or provider network.
Remember the Obama echo. “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”
At the deadline date, you may not even know how much premiums will be. Prices always rise, but there is no guarantee it will be by the average cost of living. Not only will prices rise, but you may be forced into a different provider network, and you may be forced to change doctors – again.
Are you confused?
Cato associate Charles Hughes reports, “The proposed rules would significantly increase government authority and decision-making power. For many people, the government would actually choose and enroll them in a specific health insurance plan.”
One thing we know for sure is that one-sixth of our economy is in that Cracker Jack box. No one is certain what they’ll find inside it, and that recalls the words of Nancy Pelosi “We must pass the bill to see what’s in it.”
Millions of Americans have opened that Cracker Jack box, discovered what’s in it today, but none of us knew about the secret compartment the government failed to tell us was there.
Just one more reason we don’t trust politicians.
