From WaPo's The Plum Line:
A crucial GOP line of attack against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is that millions of people will supposedly lose coverage thanks to shifting requirements on the health insurance exchanges — a flagrant violation of President Obama’s infamous “if you like your plan, you can keep it” proclamation. The truth has always been more complicated, of course. Republicans are constantly blurring the line between people who lose a plan and people who lose coverage. That is, many people might lose a particular insurance plan but immediately be presented with other options.
Now, a new report from the minority staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has destroyed the foundation of that particular GOP claim. It projects that only 10,000 people will lose coverage because of the ACA and be unable to regain it — or in other words, 0.2 percent of the oft-cited 5 million cancellations statistic.
The report starts with an assumption that 4.7 million will receive cancellation notices about their 2013 plan. (Notably it doesn’t endorse that figure, just takes it on for the sake of argument.) But of those, who will get a new plan?
According to the report, half of the 4.7 million will have the option to renew their 2013 plans, thanks to an administrative fix this year.
Of the remaining 2.35 million individuals, 1.4 million should be eligible for tax credits through the marketplaces or Medicaid, according to the report.
Of the remaining 950,000 individuals, fewer than 10,000 people in 18 counties will lack access to an affordable catastrophic plan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The full report from the Committee on Energy & Commerce can be read here:
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/...
No surprise, really, that the GOP scary 5 million number turns out to be B.S. But the fact that the real number is 0.2 percent of that, is somewhat shocking. Hats off to the minority staff of the House Commerce & Energy Committee for uncovering the truth, and to the Washington Post, for broadcasting it.
Just waiting now for Bob Woodward to bemoan the fact that Democrats in the House took their report to Greg Sargent and not him. Lolz