President Obama: “Already people who have plans that pre-date the Affordable Care Act can keep those plans if they haven’t changed. That was already in the law. That’s what’s called a grandfather clause that was included in the law. “
FACT: The grandfathering was restrictive, so millions are losing their plans. On page 34,553 of the June 17, 2010 Federal Register, the Administration’s mid-range estimate was that 51 percent of employer plans would lose their grandfathered status by 2013. Since 156 million Americans received coverage through employers in 2013, that is 80 million people. The high-end estimate was 69 percent, or 108 million people.
On the same Federal Register page, the Administration estimated that at least 40 to 67 percent of people with individual plans, those not covered by employer-provided health insurance, would lose their plans in 2013. Since 25 million people have individual plans, this adds up to an average of 13 million people.
In total, back in June 2010, the Administration estimated that an average of 93 million people would lose their health plans in 2013 (see our infographic on this topic here).
President Obama: “So state insurance commissioners still have the power to decide what plans can and can’t be sold in their states, but the bottom line is insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be cancelled into 2014. And Americans whose plans have been cancelled can choose to re-enroll in the same kind of plan.”
FACT: It is not an easy matter extending insurance. Insurance deals with large pools of people for extended periods of time. Some insurance companies may decide that they cannot do this temporary fix. Since the president plans to do this on a “selective enforcement basis,” meaning case by case, some companies might be worried as to whether they will be prosecuted for breaking the law and selling illegal policies. A simpler solution would be for Congress to pass a law allowing Americans to purchase any plan.
President Obama: “It is important to understand, though, that the old individual market was not working well. And it’s important that we don’t pretend that somehow that’s a place worth going back to.”
FACT: Although the health insurance market is not perfect, millions of people are happy with their policies. That’s why the president sold Obamacare by saying “If you like your plan, you can keep it. Period.”
President Obama: “I’m not going to walk away from 40 million people who have the chance to get health insurance for the first time, and I’m not going to walk away from something that has helped the cost of health care grow at its slowest rate in 50 years.”
FACT: The Affordable Care Act will not result in everyone having health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the number of uninsured will decline to 30 million, and never fall below that number. The cost of health care slowed due to the recession—the Affordable Care Act has not even been fully implemented. Premiums under the Affordable Care Act are higher and are driving health care costs up (see our infographic on this topic here).
