Good News For Millions With Cancelled Health Insurance Policies (803 hits)
If you are among those 6 million Americans whose health insurance policies were cancelled by the government, there is good news. The Obama administration just announced that they will allow hardship exemptions for those affected by cancelled policies, preventing them from being penalized by the government for not being insured. Now, in case you are having trouble following what's happening with Obamacare, perhaps referring to the changes as Plan I, Plan II, etc. will help.
Plan I - The original mandate was plan up or pay up. Either buy an insurance plan or pay a penalty. (That was Plan I.)
Plan II - Then the government cancelled policies that were not up to par with the new Obamacare health insurance requirements, affecting 6 million Americans. These people were suddenly out of insurance coverage and finding that new policies were going to cost them more. Plan II stated that if you had insurance coverage in effect on October 1, 2013, you could keep your plan.
Plan III - This is the latest plan that, just days before the deadline to buy insurance, which grants exemptions from the law for those whose policies were cancelled.
NOTE: It wasn't just the individual market that was affected, like the numbers reported by the Obama administration seem to indicate. It affects small businesses and people who get their insurance through their employer, taking that reported 5 percent of the population to 8 percent.
Why the last-minute exemption plan?
It would seem that the government really had no choice. When the government's health insurance web site failed, followed by the cancellation of millions of existing policies, the fact that some insurance companies are not renewing the cancelled plans, and the fact that only tens of thousands of Americans, not millions, have even been able to buy their insurance through the exchanges, the latest decision was the right thing to do.
