The Big Dick agrees with the Big Dog

[BlueStreak]

9. Of course not. That's the key point everybody seems to be missing

The cancellations are BY THE CHOICE OF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, not the result of the ACA in most cases. For better or worse, we chose a free market system. In the free market system, you can't force companies to be in a business they don't want to be in.

Moreover it is probably too late to make any changes like this. However, if we could get the right kind of legislation passed, it would actually be a good thing. Let's say that there was a 12-month extension on the grandfathering of policies. That would allow millions of currently insured people to have some coverage. Although a lot of that is junk insurance, most people would not be hurt over the next 12 months. And this would allow the priority to be on those who don't have any insurance today.

And if that same law said that all the notices from these insurance companies had to clearly disclose the deficiencies of these policies, and clear explain how people can go to the exchange to look for policies that are not deficient, then this could be a good move. Getting something like that passed in a couple of weeks isn't very likely.

But Boehner thinks he's going to write a bill that says insurance companies have to keep offering the old policies, I bet he's going to get an earful from a lot of insurance CEOs who have already moved on and have no interested in going back. After all, the subsidized exchange allows them to sell policies that are a lot more expensive, with the government picking up most of the tab.