President Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement on health care policy this morning at 11:35 AM ET. In his statement, President Obama will address the issue of policy cancellations by announcing
an administrative fix that will allow state insurance commissioners to allow insurance companies to continue offering grandfathered health insurance plans for an additional year. You can watch the president's comments in the live video stream at the top of this post and we'll be posting updates throughout his remarks.
8:16 AM PT:
More from insurance industry source on WH O-care fix: "This is a joke - doesn't change anything but allow WH to blame insurance companies"
— @JohnJHarwood
Obama can't compel insurers to reissue canceled policies, & they don't want to. But Dems hope this shifts voter anger to insurance cos.
— @jonathanweisman
Pelosi says House Dems will propose their own legislative Obamacare fix to vote on Friday. More details after they meet this afternoon.
— @Chris_Moody
Also: the briefing has now been postponed to 11:45 AM ET.
8:40 AM PT: House Speaker John Boehner is delivering his weekly press conference now, which usually lasts about 10-12 minutes. He's halfway through, but he rejects the Obama "fix," saying the only way to fix Obamacare is to repeal it. He also says that the House will vote tomorrow on a bill to let insurers sign up new people to policies that they had been planning on canceling, which he describes as a fix.
8:47 AM PT: The RNC Communication Director is on TV is saying that this is just a fig leaf to push things past the 2014 election because it would only last for one year. That's absurd: If it were true, this issue wouldn't have popped up before the 2013 election.
8:49 AM PT: A big question is: If this is simply voluntary for state insurance commissioners and insurance companies, what guarantee is there that there will be relief for consumers who want to keep shitty policies? The main answer, I think, is that Congress could still pass the Landrieu bill, which would compel insurers to continue expiring plans. Even the threat of passing that plan might achieve the desired effect. But remember: Eventually, nobody will want those old plans ... because they suck, and the exchange plans will be better, and easier to get.
