Has Your Health Insurance Plan Been Canceled?
by Amy Payne and Kelsey Harris, Heritage Foundation, October 29, 2013
They liked their health care plans—but they couldn’t keep them.
That’s the situation facing nearly 1.5 million Americans right now under Obamacare, although that’s far from a final tally.
White House spokesman Jay Carney admitted yesterday that some Americans will not be able to keep their health care plans under Obamacare:
So it’s true there are existing health care plans on the individual market that do not meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.
Dianne Barrette of Florida is one of those people. Last month, the 56-year-old received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield informing her that her current plan will be canceled in January 2014. The new plan she’s being offered would cost her $591 a month—10 times more than the $54 premium she currently pays.
“What I have right now is what I am happy with and I just want to know why I can’t keep what I have,” Barrette told “CBS This Morning.” “Why do I have to be forced into something else?”
People all over the country are getting hit with cancellation notices from their health insurance companies detailing new, much more expensive plans that comply with Obamacare.
Californian Natalie Willis is another.
“Before, I had a plan that I had a $1,500 deductible,” she told CBS News. “I paid $199 a month. The most similar plan that I would have available to me would be $278 a month. My deductible would be $6,500, and all of my care after that point would only be covered 70 percent.”
The cancellations are still being announced in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland. Over the next year, NBC News reports, between 50 percent and 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy insurance on the individual market could get cancellations.
It’s been five weeks since HealthCare.gov launched, and the website’s problems are still not fixed. But Obamacare’s problems—like kicking people off their current health insurance—cannot be fixed. It was designed to transform the health insurance system with its web of mandates and regulations.
Has your insurance plan been canceled? What are you doing about it? Leave a comment and tell us your story.
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