According to NBC News, President Obama will be introducing a "fix" allowing people to keep their health insurance plan.
Breaking: Minority Leader Pelosi says President Obama will offer his fix to allow people to keep their health care plans if they like...
— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) November 14, 2013
"Stay tuned, it could be a legislative fix, it could be an administrative fix," Pelosi said at a forum this morning in Washington D.C."
The details on the "fix" proposal at this point are very unclear. At this point it's impossible for the five million who have lost their plans to get them back, so Obama's offer will most likely be to ensure people from this point forward can keep their health insurance plans under Obamacare, something he's been promising for years. The problem? Any type of "fix" undermines the law, making it even more difficult for it to work, as NBC's Chuck Todd pointed out this morning.
"If you start messing around with this and trying to grandfather in some of these folks, you undermine the whole premise of the law,” Todd said.
After denying for months that Obamacare can be changed because "Its. The. Law," The White House has suggested President Obama is open to a change, which he will announce later today. Also, it's questionable whether Obama even has the authority to go around Congress to implement an administrative fix. Changes to major pieces of legislation require Congressional approval.
The bottom line: Obamacare can't be fixed and the only solution is full repeal, something Republicans have voted for over and over again.
UPDATE: President Obama will make a statement at 11:35 from the White House.
UPDATE II: The plan Obama will offer will be an administrative fix, going around Congress. From POLITICO:
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President Barack Obama will announce an administrative fix Thursday to Obamacare to ensure Americans who like their insurance can keep it by permitting current plans to continue into the coming year.
The president’s proposal would allow insurers to offer plans in 2014 that were previously slated to sunset this year, but require the companies to let consumers know how — if at all — their policies don’t comply with the minimum benefits of the Affordable Care Act, according to a source briefed on the proposal.
There is also expected to be some adjustment to risk pools to offset the change, a source said.
White House aides, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, are set to brief House Democrats on the plan this afternoon.
BREAKING: Obama will allow insurers to continue sale of canceled policies, AP source says.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 14, 2013
Basically, this is what is going to happen: President Obama is going to come out, make a statement about an administrative "fix" that would "allow" people to get their lost insurance plans back, which is impossible. Then, Obama will turn around and blame insurance companies for not offering old and cancelled plans (that they cancelled to comply with Obamacare) and blame further blame them for insurance losses while touting his efforts to help people regain their plans. The argument will be, "I offered a fix but the insurance companies no longer offer those plans."
this -> RT @JohnJHarwood Insurance source: WH fix places "onus on us even tho they know we can't" effectively extend cancelled policies
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) November 14, 2013
Another huge problem and another reason why getting insurance back is impossible: major insurance companies have completely pulled out of a number of states. How are those people going to get their plans back? They can't and won't, the companies are gone thanks to Obamacare.
UPDATE III: Reports are now showing President Obama will allow for insurance plans to be kept....until 2015, just after the 2014 midterm elections. And here's this oof from Buzzfeed:
“This doesn’t change anything other than force insurers to be the political flack jackets for the administration,” said an industry insider. “So now when we don’t offer these policies the White House can say it’s the insurers doing this and not being flexible.”This post has been updated.
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