In a press conference Thursday, President Obama announced health insurers can continue offering individual market health plans for the next year, even if the plans do not meet the essential benefits requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Washington Post reported on the announcement and published a full transcript of President Obama's statement. The announcement also comes one day after HHS said only 106,185 people have successfully attained a health plan through the law's insurance exchanges.
HealthCare.gov, the government's website for the exchanges, has received its share of media coverage and criticism. Lately, another portion of the PPACA has garnered attention, as many people within the individual market began to receive cancellation notices from their health insurers saying their plans no longer meet the law's requirements. This went against President Obama's words when he first promoted the law and said all Americans can keep their health plan if they liked it, "period."
Under the law, people who have a health plan that predates the PPACA can keep their plan under a grandfather clause, according to the report. However, the announcement extends that to people who have gotten health plans since the law went into effect.
If health insurers want to extend health plans that were being canceled, they must follow two rules, President Obama said. First, health insurers must inform beneficiaries what their current health plans don't include or cover compared with the exchange health plans. Second, health insurers must inform beneficiaries the new marketplaces offer "new options with better coverage and tax credits that might help you bring down the cost," according to the report.
The Obama administration has been taking heat for the PPACA's rollout thus far, but President Obama stressed this extension does not mean the private health insurance market for individuals will be going back to the status quo.
"It is important to understand, though, that the old individual market was not working well. And it's important that we don't pretend that somehow that's a place worth going back to," President Obama said. "Too often it works fine as long as you stay healthy. It doesn't work well when you're sick."
More Articles on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
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HHS: 106,185 People Have Enrolled, Selected Plans Through PPACA Exchanges
Obama Apologizes for Health Plan Cancellations Under PPACA