President Obama’s sudden shift on his signature health plan is getting a Bronx cheer in Albany.
Assembly Health Committee chairman Richard Gottfried said he opposes allowing insurance companies to renew existing policies for another year as the president has proposed.
About 100,000 New Yorkers have policies that could be continued even though some might be considered “substandard” under the previous ObamaCare rules, state health officials said.
“Allowing insurance companies to take your money and deliver you junk is not a good thing,” said Gottfried, a Manhattan Democrat. “The Affordable Care Act outlawed junked insurance as of January 1.”
Gottfried’s criticism indicates that the fury over ObamaCare that engulfed DC is shifting to state capitals. Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature earlier this year passed a law as part of the state budget that implements all aspects of ObamaCare.
It’s not clear if Albany will have to enact another a law to allow the waiver announced by Obama.
“In light of today’s announcement, it is a decision for Governor Cuomo and the Legislature to determine if the law should be changed to accommodate the new policy of President Obama,” said Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association, the trade group representing medical insurers.
Moran said keeping existing policies in place for tens of thousands of New Yorkers will come at a price: higher premiums down the road.
After years of planning for the new law, insurers are being asked to do a 180 “without any time to implement the changes.”
“There will consequences to rates,” she said.
Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, insisted that additional legislative action is not necessary.
But state Senate Health Committee chairman Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau), who supports Obama’s goal of giving people another year on their current policies, questioned whether it could be done without congressional or state approval.