Friends,
Here’s something that many people don’t know about –
The President, Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats knew that millions of people would loose their insurance.
Actually the Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) bill that was passed says that people who like their insurance can keep it.
(Photo attached from heritage.org)
However, when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the HHS staff wrote the rules, they made keeping your insurance almost impossible on purpose since they knew that without most of the country in the plan, it would be a financial failure.
Not only do existing plans have to offer the Obamacare mandates, if the plan changed in any way since the Obamacare passed. it lost the protection that the law gave to the public to keep their insurance. If your co-pays and/or deductible increased or even decreased, you lost being grandfathered. If the Doctors in the plan changed, your not grandfathered. Any change causes people to lose their coverage. The next round of people who will be dropped are those in group plans and that number is huge.
This is example of a re-write in the law by the administration and then with full knowledge, they all went out and lied and told you that you could keep your insurance.
In 2010, Republican Senator Mike Enzi (Wyoming) introduced JR 39 to bock implementation of the HHS Grandfather Rule 34553 which is a Senate procedure to deal with rule issues. Republican Senators objected to rule and believed that it would cause great harm to Americans and was inconsistent with the law.
The Executive Office of the President sent a letter to the Senate opposing Senator Enzi’s Resolution. On September 29, 2010 (Yes, that’s 2010!), the Democrats did exactly what they were told to do and voted JR-39 down 59-40 with one Democrat not voting. Then they told the media that killing the rule was just an attempt by the Republicans to destroy Obamacare. In reality, had Senator Enzi’s Resolution been supported by a majority of the Senate, HHS would have been forced to rewrite the rule consistent with the law.
I looked up the transcript in the Congressional Record and I have a copy. If you have never read the Congressional Record, it tells the whole story. If you would like me to send a copy to you, let me know.
I have attached the letter from the White House opposing the Republican’s efforts in the Senate to block implementation of HHS Rule 34553 that has caused so many Americans to suffer and below are stories from NBC News and CNN.
Sincerely,
Sue Ann Douglas Co-President
Rochester Area Republican Club
Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance
Senate Democrats supported fule that led to insurance cancellations
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/31/senate-democrats-supported-rule-that-lead-to-insurance-cancellations/
PDF:
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
S.J. Res. 39 – Disapproval of the Rule Relating to Status as a Grandfathered Health Plan Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(Sen. Enzi, R-Wyoming)
The Administration strongly opposes Senate passage of S.J. Res. 39, which would undermine important protections offered to Americans and businesses under the Affordable Care Act. This resolution is an attempt to put insurance companies back in charge of Americans’ health care by allowing them to dramatically reduce benefits and increase costs while evading the new protections that the Affordable Care Act provides to consumers.
By dismantling the Interim Final Rule that set out the conditions under which health plans can qualify for “grandfather” status, the resolution would limit individuals’ and businesses’ choice to keep the plan they had in place when the Affordable Care Act was enacted. Adoption of the joint resolution would result in significant uncertainty as to what kind of changes may be made to coverage without a loss of grandfather status. If S.J. Res. 39 were approved, it could be argued that any change in coverage could be made while retaining grandfather status, creating confusion about which plans are actually grandfathered and stripping consumers of additional benefits and protections.
The Interim Final Rule provides guidance that is essential for businesses, individuals, and issuers to determine when health coverage has changed to the point that it can no longer be regarded as the grandfathered plan in effect on the date of enactment. In specifying what changes can be made without the loss of grandfather status, the Interim Final Rule strikes a careful balance between the goals of the Affordable Care Act of providing new patient protections while minimizing disruption in existing markets. It achieves these goals by allowing businesses and health insurance issuers flexibility to make the kinds of normal adjustments they have historically made to contain costs and innovate. The Interim Final Rule ensures that if individuals or businesses choose to change their health coverage so significantly that it is no longer the coverage in place on March 23, the plan will need to provide additional consumer protections required by the Affordable Care Act, such as preventive health benefits without out- of-pocket costs and the right to independent appeals of health plan coverage determinations and claims. Moreover, the regulators are considering potential specific improvements to and clarifications of the Interim Final Rule in order to be responsive to stakeholders’ comments on particular aspects of the rule while continuing to meet issuers’, employers’ and families’ needs for clear guidance.
S.J. Res. 39 would replace the clarity of a reasoned set of rules for maintaining grandfather status with confusion and uncertainty that will be disruptive for both employers and their workers and families and result in unnecessary litigation. The Administration estimates that 145 million Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance—who make up the vast majority of those with private health insurance today—will be in grandfathered health plans. Further, the… Ask for PDF to read for more
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