[h=3]Politics[/h]Updated: 2013-11-13T04:50:08Z
[h=5]November 12[/h][h=5]Star news services[/h]Under bipartisan pressure to answer consumer complaints, administration officials said Tuesday that President Barack Obama wants his staff to find ways of ensuring that new insurance plans required by his health care law are more affordable for people who have been forced off older policies with less comprehensive coverage.
Gerald Herbert | AP Photo President Barack Obama speaks about the economy, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, at the Port of New Orleans. The president says he'll do everything he can to help people coping with health insurance cancellations, but legally and practically his options appear limited. That means the latest political problem engulfing Obama's health care overhaul is unlikely to be resolved quickly, cleanly or completely.
Medicaid expanding
The ugly duckling of government health care programs has turned into a success story. Often criticized for byzantine rules and skimpy payments, Medicaid has signed up 444,000 people in 10 states in the six weeks since open enrollment began, according to Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia are expanding their Medicaid programs, but results for all of them were not available.
Kansas and Missouri were not among the states that have expanded Medicaid.
Meanwhile, private plans offered through troublesome online markets are expected to have enrolled a far smaller number of people. A big reason for the disparity: In 36 states, the new private plans are being offered through a malfunctioning federal website that continues to confound potential customers. And state-run websites have not been uniformly glitch-free.
Obama’s health care law melded two approaches to advance its goal of broader insurance coverage. Middle-class people with no access to job-based coverage are offered subsidized private plans, while low-income people are steered to an expanded version of Medicaid in states accepting it.
Starting Jan. 1, the law expands Medicaid eligibility to those with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,856 for an individual or $32,499 for a family of four. But the Supreme Court gave states the right to opt out of the expansion, which is fully financed by Washington for the first three years, gradually phasing down to a 90 percent federal share.
[h=5]Read more Politics[/h]White House officials also said the president was likely to oppose emerging lagislation that would let people keep their current insurance plans that don’t meet minimum standards.
Former President Bill Clinton, who has helped promote the 3-year-old law, added to the pressure on the administration by saying the president should find a way to let people keep their health coverage, even if it means changing the law.
Clinton says Obama should “honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.”
The White House said it is working on changes that would ease the effect of cancellations for some people. But the fixes are administrative actions, not changes to the law.
White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday reiterated that the cancellations apply to only about 5 percent of Americans, who buy individual policies.
He also argued that more than half of those people receiving termination notices would benefit from better insurance at lower prices either through expanded Medicaid or through new health care marketplaces.
For the rest, Carney said, “The president has instructed his team to look at a range of options.”
Clinton, whose eight-year administration failed to produce substantive health care legislation, became the latest in Obama’s party to urge the president to live up to a promise he made, declaring that if Americans liked their health care coverage, they would be able to keep it under the new law.
The president failed to acknowledge that that would not be true for bare-bones policies that offered little coverage and failed to meet minimum standards under the law.
House Republicans have drafted legislation to give consumers the opportunity to keep their coverage. Ten Senate Democrats are pushing for an unspecified extension of the sign-up period. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to reinstate the canceled policies.
Carney said the White House opposes a House Republican bill, proposed by Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, that would let insurers keep selling policies that don’t offer the type of benefits required by the new law.
“Any fix that would essentially open up for insurers the ability to sell new plans that do not meet standards would create more problems than it fixed,” he said.
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[h=5]November 12[/h][h=5]Star news services[/h]Under bipartisan pressure to answer consumer complaints, administration officials said Tuesday that President Barack Obama wants his staff to find ways of ensuring that new insurance plans required by his health care law are more affordable for people who have been forced off older policies with less comprehensive coverage.
Medicaid expanding
The ugly duckling of government health care programs has turned into a success story. Often criticized for byzantine rules and skimpy payments, Medicaid has signed up 444,000 people in 10 states in the six weeks since open enrollment began, according to Avalere Health, a market analysis firm. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia are expanding their Medicaid programs, but results for all of them were not available.
Kansas and Missouri were not among the states that have expanded Medicaid.
Meanwhile, private plans offered through troublesome online markets are expected to have enrolled a far smaller number of people. A big reason for the disparity: In 36 states, the new private plans are being offered through a malfunctioning federal website that continues to confound potential customers. And state-run websites have not been uniformly glitch-free.
Obama’s health care law melded two approaches to advance its goal of broader insurance coverage. Middle-class people with no access to job-based coverage are offered subsidized private plans, while low-income people are steered to an expanded version of Medicaid in states accepting it.
Starting Jan. 1, the law expands Medicaid eligibility to those with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,856 for an individual or $32,499 for a family of four. But the Supreme Court gave states the right to opt out of the expansion, which is fully financed by Washington for the first three years, gradually phasing down to a 90 percent federal share.
[h=5]Read more Politics[/h]White House officials also said the president was likely to oppose emerging lagislation that would let people keep their current insurance plans that don’t meet minimum standards.
Former President Bill Clinton, who has helped promote the 3-year-old law, added to the pressure on the administration by saying the president should find a way to let people keep their health coverage, even if it means changing the law.
Clinton says Obama should “honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.”
The White House said it is working on changes that would ease the effect of cancellations for some people. But the fixes are administrative actions, not changes to the law.
White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday reiterated that the cancellations apply to only about 5 percent of Americans, who buy individual policies.
He also argued that more than half of those people receiving termination notices would benefit from better insurance at lower prices either through expanded Medicaid or through new health care marketplaces.
For the rest, Carney said, “The president has instructed his team to look at a range of options.”
Clinton, whose eight-year administration failed to produce substantive health care legislation, became the latest in Obama’s party to urge the president to live up to a promise he made, declaring that if Americans liked their health care coverage, they would be able to keep it under the new law.
The president failed to acknowledge that that would not be true for bare-bones policies that offered little coverage and failed to meet minimum standards under the law.
House Republicans have drafted legislation to give consumers the opportunity to keep their coverage. Ten Senate Democrats are pushing for an unspecified extension of the sign-up period. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to reinstate the canceled policies.
Carney said the White House opposes a House Republican bill, proposed by Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, that would let insurers keep selling policies that don’t offer the type of benefits required by the new law.
“Any fix that would essentially open up for insurers the ability to sell new plans that do not meet standards would create more problems than it fixed,” he said.
Copyright 2013 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Kansas City Star is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
The Kansas City Star uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here