REPORT: 52 million Americans have lost or will lose health insurance
Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had
Published: November 7, 2013
WASHINGTON — Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies.
“If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly.
Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans.
Colorado Woman Who Championed Obamacare Loses Insurance Plan
November 8, 2013 4:12 PM
The Colorado Division of Insurance says 250,000 people in Colorado alone have lost their policies in the last few months.
Cathy Wagner says she isn’t political and has never written a lawmaker, much less the president, but with Obamacare she felt compelled.
“I really just wanted him to know … I was so hopeful that this plan was going to move us forward, but in fact I think it’s moving us backward,” Wagner said.
Wagner and her husband retired early. She was a nurse for 35 years and championed Obamacare, until she received a letter from her insurance company saying it was canceling her policy.
“I was really shocked … all of my hopes were sort of dashed,” Wagner said. “’Oh my gosh President Obama, this is not what we hoped for, it’s not what we were told.’ “
She was shocked further to learn that for the same coverage she would pay 35 percent more and have a higher deductible.
“Our premium for next year is going up to over $1,000 a month for two of us and we’re two fairly healthy individuals,” Wagner said.
Canceled: Loyal Obama Supporters Lose Their Health Insurance Plan
Marguerite Bowling
November 6, 2013 at 2:54 pm
NBC News - Health Insurance Plans Canceled
Every day, it’s becoming clear that no one in the individual insurance market is safe from the dreaded cancellation notices.
Such was the case recently for “cradle Democrats” and self-described Obama supporters Lee Hammack and his wife, JoEllen Brothers.
According to ProPublica, the San Francisco couple had been paying $550 a month for health coverage from Kaiser Permanente. However, Kaiser recently told the couple the plan would be canceled at the end of the year because it didn’t comply with Obamacare.
The author of ProPublica’s story says he was skeptical of the couple’s account and tried to determine if they were truly worse off from the cancellation:
So I tried to find flaws in what Hammack told me. I couldn’t find any.
•The couple’s existing Kaiser plan was a good one.
•Their new options were indeed more expensive, and the benefits didn’t seem any better.
•They do not qualify for premium subsidies because they make more than four times the federal poverty level, though Hammack says not by much.
For Hammack, his canceled plan had a $4,000 deductible per person, $40 copay for doctor visits, $150 emergency room visit fee, 30 percent coinsurance for hospital stays after the deductible, and an out-of-pocket maximum of $5,600.
The new Kaiser plans available to the couple cost nearly $1,300 a month, or $15,000 more a year. They will have a higher deductible of $4,500, higher out-of-pocket maximum, higher hospital coinsurance of 40 percent, as well as higher costs for doctor visits and drug coverage.
The ProPublica author found Kaiser has canceled 160,000 plans in California, with a third being in plans like the one Hammack had — one the writer noted wasn’t a substandard plan, as the President has alleged in recent remarks.
Perhaps the saddest part of this story is Hammack’s plan going forward. Rather than find patient-centered solutions, Hammack said he is leaning toward earning less so that his family can qualify for Obamacare subsidies.
