Oh, this should go over well:
…the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposal in March that would prohibit insurers from selling fixed-benefit insurance plans as stand-alone policies.
Fixed-benefit plans are so bare bones they don’t even qualify as actual health insurance under the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate – so people who are covered by these plans only are still subject to the penalty unless they qualify for an exemption.
So why would people buy them? …Probably because the Obamacare tax – that’s what it is: a tax – is low enough that it’s still cheaper to pay the tax and get the fixed-benefit plan. Numbers are a little sparse on this stuff, but a fixed-benefit plan seems to range from $70 to $100 or so a month; given that the Obamacare tax is effectively capped at 2.5% (eventually) of income over $10,000, there’s still a market for these kinds of plans.
Unless the government kills them, of course. We’ll move over to Hot Air for the next bit:
Keeping such plans as an option isn’t just desirable to the little guy trying to figure out a solution. It’s also supported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which has plenty of Democrat-appointed members. If this goes through – which looks fairly likely – and the fur begins to fly, it won’t just be Republicans calling the President out on the carpet during some election season frenzy. He’s going to be taking fire from members of his own party who are already facing enough challenges in holding on to their jobs.
Because there’s going to be enough people having their coverage canceled/roughly handled/mutated/pick a verb this fall that the Democrats don’t want even more coals made out of burning feces dropped on their heads. …Yes, I am sorry for that mental image; but you get my point. The Obama administration’s goals have always been significantly different than the Democratic party’s as a whole: it’s just that now, like Obama’s unfavorable/favorable numbers, the gap ever widens.
Roll on, November. Because it’s almost July, and the Democrats are still flailing about.
Moe Lane
I’d hate to win with a campaign based on “The Democrats are responsible for ruining our country and several others, so don’t vote for them!” … because that presupposes that our country is actually being ruined, and I don’t want that. The trouble is, it’s true, and that’s why I’d hate even more to lose to the Democrats.