Obama's 'You Can Keep Your Plan' Comments Problematic, Not a Big Lie

[LuckyTheDog]

Me, in the Huffington Post:

Do you remember when President Obama said insurance companies will be forced to keep offering -- forever and ever -- the same kinds of insurance products to individuals that they offered in 2010?

I don't, either. But, apparently, that's what Republicans heard when Obama said that people who were happy with their health insurance could keep it.

Years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the president's opponents are shocked -- shocked -- to discover that the "government takeover" of the health care system provides the private sector with a lot of freedom to operate.

I won't deny it. Obama's "you can keep your insurance" comment was problematic. It is easily misunderstood and provides an opening for opponents to use the president's words against him. But, it is hardly the "big lie" the right wing wants to pretend that it is.

MORE HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-melton/obamas-you-can-keep-your-_b_4233392.html?utm_hp_ref=detroit&ir=Detroit

[Ms. Toad]

1. Pretty much how I responded in a thread here yesterday. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. IMHO he made a promise that he couldn't really keep

whether or not he knew he couldn't keep that promise is debatable I suppose but I don't think that he was trying to con people like the RepubliCONS, of course, are arguing.

[uponit7771]

13. Right, if the world blew up people should still be able to keep their plans cause there were no .

... implicit or explicit exceptions in what Obama said..

There were, one of the explicit was if the HCI doesn't cancel the policy vs amend in force...

Obama doesn't control what the HCI's do

[Demo_Chris]

3. If you have to explain why a lie is not a lie...

You have already lost the plot.

It was a lie, repeated over and over again. And it was a SILLY lie, of the dog ate my homework variety.

I suggest we stop trying to alter reality and move the hell on. It's only a big deal because we want to pretend perfection that does not exist.

[LuckyTheDog]

5. No, it really wasn't a lie

I don't think Obama ever said people could "keep" insurance that ceases to exist.

[CTyankee]

7. He should have said "if you want to keep your insurance, Obamacare will not cancel it."

That way, when the INSURANCE company cancelled it, nobody could say Obamacare did it. Of course, that doesn't mean that the repukes would try to twist it around but then they would be the one put in a position of "explaining" not Obama...

[LuckyTheDog]

9. That IS what he should have said.

I think he just assumed people knew what he meant. He did not count on the ridiculous, disingenuous attacks he is getting now.

[CTyankee]

10. I also understand that Obama said that before the bill had passed and was signed into law.

Because then it went to the agency carrying out the law, HHS, so that entity could write the regs. That was when things got really murky because they set standards for health care (the way any other executive branch agency does when a law is passed and signed).

[uponit7771]

14. Right, conservatives and bashers think if the world blows up they can still keep their HCI policy

... the lack of simple common sense the M$M and gop is using

[JoePhilly]

4. The correct response is to say that the administration should have anticipated ...

that the insurance companies would use the formal start of the ACA as their last opportunity to screw people.

The end.

[rock]

6. That's correct

You CAN keep your plan as far as the government is concerned. Of course what the health insurer is going to do is problematic. They can change the plan, raise rates, drop the plan, etc.

[plcdude]

8. exactly

you hit the nail directly on the head. That is what the "grandfather" option was about. If you are happy with your inadequate plan and it has not been changed then you can keep your lack of coverage plan.

[JNinWB]

11. The huge insurance companies fought relentlessly for the grandfathering of pre-2010 policies.

Obama believed the companies that fought for this part of the ACA policy genuinely wanted to maintain the existing policies and coverage thus preserving benefits for most of their customers for several more years.

But, then these same insurers saw how much more $$ they could charge by rolling their customers into the ACA-compliant plans and forgot their earlier insistence upon "grandfathering". Thus, Obama became the liar.

Pretty neat. He can't really blame the big insurers, because he know that when a President says something, the "buck stops here".

[uponit7771]

12. +1

[LuckyTheDog]

15. Yep

What if the ACA regulated dogs instead of health insurance? Suppose Obama said to people that we'll be regulating dogs, but if you like your current dog, don't worry because you will be able to keep it.

Well, by now, Fox News would be interviewing everyone in the country whose dog had died since the regulations went into effect. The mantra would be: "Obama promised I could keep my dog, but it was flattened by a truck just last week. Obama lied!" Or: "My 15-year-old collie died of old age. But I thought Obama said I could keep it. He lied!"

[Boom Sound 416]

16. It's the forest not the trees

Yes, it's not that big of a deal. The problem is the potential string of no-big-deal(s).

1 website
2 inidividuals getting dropped
3 keep your plan
4 November 30?
5 ?
.
.
.
10 employer mandate resumes?