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TomCADem

(17,378 posts)
Sat Nov 16, 2013, 02:58 PM Nov 2013

HuffPo - "President's Insurance Announcement Keeps Eyes on the Prize"

Interesting story that notes how Republicans are not focused on policy, they are just focused on politics, which is why they will eventually undermine their own alleged efforts to grandfather insurance plans cancelled due to the ACA.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-kirsch/presidents-insurance-anno_b_4276858.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The president's new rule is likely to be where the policy settles, but it is not likely to end the Congressional debate. The Republicans will seek to keep the issue alive by voting to approve a bill sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton, which would not just grandfather existing policies -- the president's promise -- but open them up to more people. And that bill would leave out the information about the better, more affordable exchange policies in the Landrieu legislation and Obama rule.

Democrats may decide they need to offer a legislative alternative to the Upton bill, which could be the Landrieu proposal. The policy concern with the Landrieu proposal is that premiums will rise and the exchanges will be harmed, if the healthiest people stay out, which is why Obama wants to limit the extension to one year. While that is certainly better policy, if Democrats go the Landrieu route it won't be cataclysmic. Fairly quickly, the number of people left with their original policies will shrink as they get older and sicker and their insurance premiums rise. And as the exchanges grow and policies outside the exchanges dwindle, more insurers will drop coverage outside the exchanges all together.

Will Republicans accept this compromise? Of course not. Everything they've done for the last five years demonstrates that they would rather try to keep the issue alive politically than address people's problems.

The president's move allows him and Democrats to take the high ground. The most important task -- to build a solid political foundation for the Affordable Care Act and realize its purpose -- is getting people more people enrolled. The experience in Massachusetts demonstrated that low initial enrollment numbers are to be expected. There is every reason to expect a huge acceleration in enrollment as the web problems get fixed and we get closer to the deadlines. Including Medicaid, there are already more than half a million Americans who will be newly-covered next year. There will be millions more by early in 2014. And as the opponents of Obamacare and government as a positive force in people's lives know and fear, in the end, those are the people who will count.
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HuffPo - "President's Insurance Announcement Keeps Eyes on the Prize" (Original Post) TomCADem Nov 2013 OP
Bravo! Glad you're on our side and not theirs. IrishAyes Nov 2013 #1
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