... And ALL BEFORE, they go on their 2-Month Holiday-Hiatus too!
Gee, what {cough} dedication!
[...]
The House is expected to vote Friday on the Keep Your Health Plan Act, which would allow people to keep their current health insurance plans in 2014 without penalties.
[...]
[...]
Boehner called on President Obama to make good on his pledge to allow Americans keep the health plans they like and can afford by supporting the Keep Your Health Plan Act (H.R. 3350), legislation on the House floor this week that removes legal barriers preventing current plans from being offered.
[...]
Legislative Digest
H.R. 3350 -- Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013
Sponsor: Rep. Upton, Fred
[...]
The ACA is silent as to health insurance plan changes that lead to a loss of grandfathered status. However, on June 17, 2010, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury (the departments) issued interim final rules significantly narrowing the interpretation of what constitutes a grandfathered plan.[2] In particular, the departments “identified certain changes to benefits, cost sharing, employer contributions, and access to coverage that would cause the loss of grandfathered status.”[3] Moreover, the departments explicitly “reserved” the right to issue guidance to “clarify or interpret the rules contained in these interim final regulations for maintaining grandfathered status.[4]
[...]
[...]
"The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 3350 because it threatens the health care security of hard working, middle class families. [...] the White House statement on the law.
H.R. 3350 rolls back the progress made by allowing insurers to continue to sell new plans that deploy practices such as not offering coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, charging women more than men, and continuing yearly caps on the amount of care that enrollees receive. [...]
The final line reads, "If the President were presented with H.R. 3350, he would veto it."
[...]
Hey look at this, our overpaid {cough} Law-makers actually want to Do their Damn Jobs now ... there must be an Election coming up soon? (or is that non-stop Fund-raising?)
Well, at least they worry about some people's Jobs, Jobs, Jobs ... eh?
[...] the Republicans’ far simpler, schadenfreude-laden options -- are limited to four bills and one possible White House gimmick.
The Upton bill. Two pages long, the Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013 was the first weapon forged to save the individual plans. That’s how Republicans describe it, anyway, as they plan to give it an overwhelming “aye” vote on Friday. [...]
The Johnson bill. Officially titled the “If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It” Act, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s legislation is more narrowly tailored than Upton’s. [...]
The Landrieu bill. [...] The goal, as Landrieu is happy to tell anyone, is to keep the pressure off the people who just lost their individual insurance, with the expectation that they will one day buy into the far superior exchanges.
The Udall bill. [...] the Continuous Coverage Act reads just like Landrieu’s, requiring that “a health insurance insurer shall offer an individual the opportunity to renew enrollment in health insurance coverage offered in the individual market if such individual was enrolled in such coverage on September 30, 2013, and such individual continues to meet the requirements of eligibility for such coverage (such as timely payment of premiums).” The difference: This safety net is rigged up only until December 31, 2015.
[...]
President Obama Announces ‘Keep Your Plan’ Fix:
Permit One Year Extension of Cancelled Plans
[...]
The President described the existing grandfather rules, and added “Today we’re going to extend that principle both to people whose plans have changed since the law took effect, and to people who bought plans since the law took effect. 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 canceled can choose to re-enroll in the same kind of plan.”
“We’re also requiring insurers to extend current plans to inform their customers about two things,” he continued. “One, that protections -- what protections these renewed plans don’t include. Number two, that the marketplace offers new options with better coverage and tax credits that might help you bring down the cost. [...]
President Obama conceded that “this fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” noting that “doing more will require work with Congress.”
[...]
[...]
The insurance industry is furious. They’ve been working with the White House to get HealthCare.Gov up and running and they’ve been devoting countless man hours to dealing with the problems and they’ve been taking the heat from their customers over canceled plans, and now the Obama administration wants to make them into a scapegoat.
“This doesn’t change anything other than force insurers to be the political flack jackets for the administration,” an insurance industry insider told Evan McMorris-Santoro. “So now, when we don’t offer these policies, the White House can say it’s the insurers doing this and not being flexible.”
[...]
Hmmm, what took them so long ...
To stop Repealing, and start 'Acting' ???
Must be all those home-for-holidays fundraisers, they have in the dockets ... eh?