The Department of Health and Human Services has rolled out regulations governing health plans in effect prior to the passage of Obamacare. You know, the plans that “if you like it, you can keep it?”
The new regs will mostly affect the 170 million-plus Americans who carry employer-sponsored coverage. The vast majority of them (82 percent) are satisfied with their current coverage.
The new regs will make it tough for a lot of those folks to hold onto their current plans, even though the Department of Health and Human Services continues to claim otherwise. That because HHS is ready to revoke the “grandfathered” status of existing plans whenever an employer makes what it deems to be a “significant” change in terms of coverage. And the HHS regs show that common adjustments such as an increase in deductibles or co-pays or a reduction in benefits would be considered “significant.”
According to the regulations themselves, by 2013, 51 percent of existing employer-sponsored plans will no longer qualify as “grandfathered.” That’s the mid-range estimate—the percentage of plans that lose grandfathered status could range from 39 percent to as high as 69 percent.
And even if a plan retains grandfathered status, it may have to change to satisfy Obamacare requirement. For example, all plans will be required to dump any lifetime caps on coverage and to extend family plan coverage to “children” up to the age of 26.
As James Gelfand, health policy director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, explains, “What we are getting here is a clear indication that most plans will have to change…from an employer’s point of view that’s a bad thing. These changes, whether or not they’re good for consumers, are most certainly accompanied by a cost.”
Bottom line: Odds are that plan you like will be changed by 2013, whether you want it to or not.
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!
The writing was on the wall in large letters, but some of us must have been looking the other way! The government will do whatever it takes to take away our freedoms. WAKE UP AMERICA!
When the bill was under consideration, I stayed up night after night, reviewing what was available. I was horrified as I listed all of the changes included. But what was very strange, as I shared the details of the bill with my neighbors and co-workers, they either inferred I must have mis-understood – or was just plain wrong.
Now that my understanding has been validated from 'reliable' news sources, I have been approached by some who admitted I was right – but – it's too late now.
I wish they'd simply read it themselves – and called their congressmen as I did to express their displeasure.
David, I agree. I experienced the same thing. I read as much as I could get ahold of. It was clear to me that if anything "significant" changed in an employer health plan…and the goverment healthcare administrator would determine was was significant and acceptable each year…that very soon, most people would lose their healthcare. When I tried to tell people (even my own family) this, they would always say: How do you know that? You can't be sure of that. No one is saying that. Well, duh, I was right after all. They voted for Obama, and now they are going to have Obamacare. A pity that those of us who did our homework before the election and afterwards about healthcare, we will have to suffer along with his followers. God help us.
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Many commentators on radio and television warned of the pitfalls in Obamacare. It did not matter what the majority of the public wanted, Obama and his fellow travelers in the now National Socialist Democratic Party, want physical and economic control of the American people and will not let anyone or anything stand in their way!
There is history to show that those that rob with a stroke of the pen also find there is justice at the point of the sword. Some of the grief can also be corrected by the strroke of the pen.
Humpty Dumpty is well on his way to his great fall in a year and a half and the ObamaCare/insurance take-over are only a part of what takes him and his followers over the edge.
Now is the time for The Great Hope & Change back to reality — let's bring it on.
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