Clueless-in-the-White-House Obama May Have Delivered the KO Punch to Obamacare

NBC News reported today that President Obama's unexpected decision Thursday to permit insurers to extend until the end of 2014 the healthcare insurance of Americans who have existing policies has done one thing - kick the cancellation decision back to state insurance commissioners and to the insurance companies themselves. “It was a blame-shifting exercise,” says Dr. Scott Gottleib, a health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute. But, asks NBC, can you get your policy back if it was cancelled? Their answer : "That’s complicated. It’s not so easy for an insurance company to reinstate policies it was planning to discontinue, because the firm must plan premiums and budget for expenses far in advance. Florida Blue said it would reinstate cancelled plans, and Florida’s insurance commissioner, Kevin McCarty, said he’s working with any companies that wanted to go that route." A lot is up to state insurance commissioners - something that gives cover to both the White House and to the insurance companies. Obama hastily arranged a meeting for Friday at the White House with insurance company CEOs, as the industry and state insurance commissioners tried to figure out how to adjust to the abrupt shift the President announced Thursday. Under the shift, Obama said insurers should be permitted to continue to sell to existing customers individual coverage plans that would be deemed substandard under the health care law. Without the change, many existing plans would have been banned beginning in January because they do not meet the minimum coverage requirements of Obamacare. The president admitted in his press conference to announce the change that he was responsible for the Obamacare catastrophe and that America was looking to him to fix it. He said the shift was an attempt to respond to the public and political furor triggered by millions of cancellation notices. But, CBS News reported Friday that insurance officials and industry analysts are warning that letting people keep their current coverage as the new Obamacare marketplaces open could weaken them because healthier and younger Americans would choose the less expensive current non-Obamacare coverage and that would leave only the sickest consumers buying policies and coverage on Obamacare marketplaces. That could, in turn, lead to higher future premiums in the insurance market for almost everyone. Obama has in reality proposed the creation of two parallel markets operating under different rules, causing a "death spiral" that will kill Obamacare unless the federal government greatly increases subsidies to the sole remaining groups who would continue to buy health insurance under Obamacare - those who are eligible for Medicaid and those who cannot buy non-Obamacare insurance because of pre-existing conditions. America's Health Insurance Plans' (AHIP) President and CEO Karen Ignagni warned in a statement that premiums have already been set for next year based on the assumption that those on the individual market would join Obamacare. "If now fewer younger and healthier people choose to purchase coverage in the exchange, premiums will increase and there will be fewer choices for consumers," she said. "Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers." ~~~~~ AND while the insurance industry and its state-level regulatory commissions are trying to deal with Barack Obama's latest folly, CBS News reported that the Washington politicos are hot at each other. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, insisted on Thursday that Democrats "are going to run on the advantage that Obamacare will be going into the 2014 election." Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee mocked the Democratic Party for "doubling down" on its support for the controversial health law. In the midst of increasing turmoil, and ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted Friday to let insurance companies sell individual health coverage to all comers, both current and new, and forever, even if it falls short of the required standards in "Obamacare." The GOP vote was significant because 39 Democrats broke rank to vote with the Republican majority that did not need their votes for passage. The Democrat bolt underscored the political importance of the controversial Obamacare issue rhat is likely to be front and center in next year's elections for control of Congress. The House measure that now goes to the Democrat-majority Senate was passed to help Americans reeling from cancellation notices. Those cancellations have been arriving from companies despite President Barack Obama's oft-made promise that anyone who liked his plan could keep it. Thursday, the White House accused the Republicans of trying to sabotage the law and said their measure would not make coverage available for people with pre-existing conditions. Republicans answered that the pre-existing condition problem is dwarfed by the flood of cancellations issued due to Obamacare. ~~~~~ Dear readers, instead of helping, the stupifyingly uninformed and ill-considered proposal of President Obama has just compounded the problems inherent in Obamacare. WHEN will Barack Obama get out of the healthcare arena and let professionals deal with the monumental mess he has created? It is clear that he is "Clueless in the White House."