Today, President Obama announced that he will make administrative changes to Obamacare for the next year as a result of the panic spreading through the Democratic Party ranks. The change, which would allow insurance companies to temporarily keep people on health plans that were to be canceled under the new law because they did not meet minimum standards, is causing outrage and confusion.
The vast majority of American’s opposed the Affordable Care Act, and now that they have seen the results in the form of cancellation letters from their insurance carriers, they are making their opposition to the plan loud and clear. Over 5 million received cancellation letters from their health insurance carriers.
Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Darrell Isaa, expressed concern that the change is confusing as well. “By trying to ignore a problem with existing law instead of addressing it, the president’s proposal is sure to create confusion and prolong uncertainty for millions of Americans. Americans need a real, legislative solution, not an administrative ploy to create ambiguity by selectively enforcing its own regulations. Tomorrow, the House will vote on the Keep Your Health Plan Act, which will clearly change the law so the plans Americans have and like will not be banned.”
Yesterday, the Committee convened a hearing on the technology and security problems with HealthCare.gov and what is being done to fix them. At the hearing, White House official Todd Park could not confirm whether the website would be ready by the end of November, as promised. The panel of Administration technology experts, including Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel and Henry Chao, one of the top CMS officials tasked with implementing Obamacare, could not state who was responsible for HealthCare.gov.