Testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the failure of the Obamacare rollout, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled about President Obama's false promise that millions of Americans could keep their insurance plans. Sebelius and Obama repeatedly stated plans held prior to Obamacare passing and going into effect would be grandfathered in. What they didn't mention is the "grandfathering" process comes with caveats, meaning if plans didn't meet new Obamacare standards, they would be cancelled. Because of those caveats, millions of Americans in the individual health insurance market have lost their health insurance plans despite being promised they could keep them. Today, Sebelius admitted employer based insurance plans will also be cancelled as a result of grandfathering caveats and government requirements making plans illegal under Obamacare.
"Employer based grandfathered plans will have the same caveats," Sebelius said under questioning from Republican Senator John Thune.
The repeated promise to keep health insurance plans came without a single caveat. "If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what,” is what President Obama said.
Earlier this week, the caveat was added.
“If you had or have one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law,” Obama said to OFA volunteers and supporters in Washington D.C. “And you really like that plan, what we said was, you could keep it… if it hasn’t changed since the law’s passed.”
So what kind of numbers are we looking at here when it comes to losing health insurance? 93 million people will lose their plans either in the individual market or through their employer. That's quite the caveat.
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