“If you like your health insurance, yada yada yada”
The White House on Monday outlined broad new rules designed to prevent employers from dropping health insurance benefits for their workers or shifting huge new costs onto them.
The regulations empower the administration to revoke the so-called grandfather status of businesses that shift “significant†new burdens onto employees — a considerable penalty that would subject those plans to all the consumer protections in the Democrats’ new healthcare reform law.
Hey, what? Companies are now considering dropping their offerings, or shifting the costs? Mostly, dropping their plans? I wonder what could have brought that on?
Unveiling the rules Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters that the changes will make good on one of the administration’s central promises during the contentious debate over reform: “If you like your doctor and your plan, you keep it,†she said.
“We don’t want a massive shift of cost to employees,†Sebelius said.
Don’t worry, Chatty Kathy, they won’t. Employers will drop their coverage, which is a feature of ObamaCare, not a bug. Democrats want employers to dump their plans, so that people must (by law) purchase health insurance through the Exchange, putting them under the Paul Bunyan size thumb of The Government. That said, I don’t think the Democrats thought their legislation would cause so many companies to consider dropping their insurance offerings so darned quick. Apparently, they never considered that private companies actually have accountants, and consider ways to save money and be more profitable. Unlike The Government.
One commenter, Graham, at The Hill story writes
okay let me get this straight..there’s an administrative rule that states the grandfather exemption clause for companies will be revoked and subject the company’s plan to the consumer protection agency established by CommieCare…well, if the employer drops the plan, what will be there to penalize? no health plan, no consumer protection agency…this is the hope and change Americans wanted..seems to me the Obama Kool-Aid is tasting rather oily these days…
So, if the company dumps the insurance, there are no penalties. Rather than put more of the costs on the employees, just dump it, baby, dump it!
