A quick morning post before I get off to get ready for work… I’m seeing a number of people advocating that people should be able to keep their insurance, just as the President promised. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is working with Mary Landreau to get a bill passed to modify the ACA to let people keep their grandfathered policies as long as the companies choose to offer them. This worries me, and here’s why.
First, the finances of the ACA are a delicate balancing act. In order to be able to cover pre-existing conditions, preventative care, maternity needs, etc., the insurance companies need sufficient bodies in each pool. If people stay in their lower-cost policies that don’t cover those areas, the pools may not balance … and there may be financial problems in the long run.
Second, this provides no guarantee people can keep their policies. Insurance companies can still decide they don’t want to offer those low cost polices, and there’s nothing Congress can do about it. Congress cannot dictate what plans a company must offer, only the minimum coverage for new plans.
Thirdly, it does nothing for people who want those low-cost plans. Insurance companies will still not be allowed to enroll new people in the plans that don’t meet the minimums. Thus, slowly over time, the number of people in the grandfathered plans will diminish making them economically not-viable, resulting in the cancellation of those plans.
Just something to think about. Now off to the showers.
