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Obama sorry for 'you can keep it' insurance pledge; Boehner offers way to keep promise
Kent Hoover
Washington Bureau Chief
President Barack Obama apologized, sort of, for telling people that if they liked their insurance plan, they could keep it under health care reform.
Millions of Americans in the individual insurance market are now finding that's not true. They're being notified by their insurance companies that their current policies are being canceled because they don't meet Affordable Care Act requirements.
"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he told NBC News in a White House interview Thursday evening.
"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this," he said.
But, he added, "We really believe that ultimately they're going to be better off."
That's because the new policies will have more comprehensive coverage.
The White House indicated it would look for administrative ways to allow people to keep their old insurance plans if they want.
But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House already has a solution to this problem. It will vote next week on the "Keep Your Health Plan Act." This bill would allow insurers who had a plan in effect in the individual market on Jan. 1, 2013, to continue offering that plan outside Obamacare's new insurance exchanges in 2014, even if that plan doesn't comply with the ACA. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate as well.
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/news-wire/2013/11/08/obama-sorry-for-you-can-keep-it.html?ana=e_ptl_hc