Obama’s ‘fix’ for canceled policies

What happened

Health insurers were scrambling this week to determine if they would reissue canceled health-care plans, after President Obama reversed course and authorized insurers to renew low-cost policies that failed to meet the standards of his health-care law. Facing mounting pressure from the public and his own party over the Affordable Care Act’s botched rollout, Obama said insurers would no longer be required to scrap plans on the individual market that fell short of the law’s coverage requirements, and that those policies could be renewed for one year. “This fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” said Obama. So far, only 13 states have said that they will allow consumers to renew canceled plans, while eight—including New York, Washington, and Massachusetts—rejected the president’s non-binding proposal.

Obama’s attempt to tamp down the anger over canceled plans failed to satisfy many swing-state Democrats facing tough re-election fights in 2014. Thirty-nine members of the president’s party broke ranks and helped pass a House Republican bill that would allow insurers to sell bare-bones plans canceled under Obamacare to anyone, including new customers. The White House said that legislation would deter younger, healthier people from signing up for more comprehensive coverage through the exchanges, and that Obama would veto the bill if it got to him.

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What the editorials said

With this “modest fix,” Obama is trying to stanch the bleeding from “a self-inflicted political wound,” said The New York Times. It’s probably too late to restore most canceled policies, so the real goal here is to remove a source of Republican attacks on the president and Democrats running for re-election. Republicans are playing their own political game by proposing to let anyone buy cheap, “substandard plans.” Their obvious goal is to destroy, not repair, Obamacare, by keeping young, healthy people “out of risk pools designed to keep premiums low.”

The president’s “lawless executive decree” is an illusion, said NationalReview.com. Most insurers will find it “too complicated and expensive” to reverse policy changes they’ve spent a year putting into place. That’s exactly the reaction the White House was hoping for, enabling it to now “blame someone else—the insurers, state regulators—for the consequences of its own law.”

What the columnists said

Insurers brought this mess on themselves, said Kevin Drum in MotherJones.com. Many carriers used Obamacare as an excuse to issue expensive policies to customers on the individual market without making it clear that they can now shop for cheaper alternatives on the exchanges. The president has now called their bluff. If they don’t reissue the old policies, then Obamacare was never “responsible for the cancellations in the first place.” And if they cave and reinstate the plans, “it’s a win-win for Obama.” Over the next few months, attention will shift away from canceled plans, said Paul Begala in CNN.com. Only a small minority of Americans will pay more for insurance, while millions will get affordable insurance for the first time. Meanwhile, nearly all of us benefit from such ACA provisions as its ban on insurers refusing policies to those with pre-existing conditions, and its ban on cutting off coverage to those who run up big bills fighting cancer or other serious illnesses.

Actually, “the real political pain may only be starting,” said Alex Altman in Time.com. People will soon discover that Obama also wasn’t truthful when he said, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor.” In order to be competitive on Obamacare’s exchanges, insurers had to lower their premiums. As a result, many cut costs by narrowing their networks, “shrinking the range of doctors that are available to patients.”

In the political struggle over Obamacare’s fate, perception will determine reality, said Megan McArdle in Bloomberg.com. If insurers and Democrats in Congress stick with Obama through the troubled rollout period over the next six months, there’s a good chance the White House can “get Obamacare working”—and win over the public. But if new problems continue to surface, “both Democrats and insurers are going to stampede for the exit.” Then the law, and this presidency, may collapse.