Obama Apologizes for Health Care Law

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 8, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

            When President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law March 21, 2010, he promised that individuals with private coverage could keep their insurance and stay with their doctors.  With thousands of privately insured individuals cancelled from their insurance since insurance exchanges opened Oct. 1, Obama was forced to eat crow and apologize.  “I am sorry that they [privately insured individuals] are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” Obama told NBC’s “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams.  Obama tried to reassure anxious subscribers that his administration would fix “some of the holes and gaps” in what’s known as “Obamacare.”  What the White House didn’t anticipate in rolling out the ACA was a backlash from the insurance industry, assuming they’d comply with the law.

             Like his 65-year-old Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Obama can’t explain why Obamacare backfired on millions of Americans.  “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this,” referring to 3.5 million cancelled privately-insured subscribers.  Talking about what they’d do to fix the problem, both Obama and Sebelius have no answers.  Watching insurance companies canceling subscribers, the White House should have immediately changed the ACA provision requiring all insurance companies to adhere to minimum standards.  By requiring all insurance companies to take applicants with pre-existing conditions and load-up lavish health care benefits, like low deductibles and small co-pays, Obama drove plans out of the market.

                 Instead of seeking a generic fix, Obama should immediately allow private insurers to continue offering feeble insurance plans.  One of the most important features to the ACA was the provision that health insurers must meet minimum policy benefit requirements.  Among the over 3.5 million subscribers cancelled, most plans had high deductibles [sometimes in the thousands] and co-pays, no prescription drug or mental health coverage, no vision coverage and high prices for emergency care.  When the ACA kicks in Jan 1, 2014, all insurance companies were required to have comparable coverage to Obamacare.  Judging by vast number of subscribers cancelled recently, they continue to want bare-bones coverage policies for the low monthly premiums, despite gaping holes in coverage.  Neither Obama nor Sebelius explained why insurance companies dropped the coverage. 

            When Sebelius testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Oct. 30, she was dumbfounded by Obamacare’s rocky rollout.  Asked to explain why insurers were canceling policies, Sebelius shrugged.  “When you’ve got a health care rollout that is as important to the country and to me as this is and it doesn’t work like a charm, that’s my fault,” said Obama, yet not placing blame where it belongs:  On insurance companies.  “If the president is truly sorry for breaking promises to the American people, he’ll do more that just issue a half-hearted apology on TV,” said Obamacare opponent Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  If McConnell had any sincere bone in his body, he wouldn’t point fingers at Obama but at the insurance industry for taking advantage of the law.  GOP and Democratic lawmakers need to rein-in the profit-hungry insurance industry.

             Because it’s difficult to legislate bipartisan restrictions on the insurance industry canceling policies, the White House must work with its Capitol Hill partners to stop the insurance industry from canceling policies.  While fewer that 5% of Americans will have to change insurance policies, it could be up to 15 million.  Stopping the insurance industry from canceling policies would be the preferred outcome.  If that can’t happen under Washington’s divided government, it’s necessary for Obama to either provide subsidies to insurance companies or allow those old policies to continue without complying with new Obamacare provisions.  If the ACA permitted insurance companies to continue old policies, they wouldn’t cancel existing policies.  Fearing running in the red, insurance companies began canceling policies that would have been forced under Obamacare to offer more lavish benefits.

             No matter how hard they try, the White House can’t help Obama explain what’s gone wrong with Obamacare.  “We weren’t as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place,” said Obama, referring obliquely to the insurance industry’s widespread cancellations.  Had the White House simply anticipated the industry’s defensive posture, they could have allowed the insurance industry more time to comply with stricter benefit guidelines under Obamacare.  Insurance experts knew that forcing bare-bones insurance plans to load up the benefits would take its toll, forcing large scale cancellations.  We “didn’t do a good enough job in terms to how we crafted the law,” said Obama, in a colossal understatement.  If the White House cared about the insurance industry’s bottom line, they would have allowed the insurance industry to continue offering skeleton policies.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.