WASHINGTON – A new administration tweak in ObamaCare deadlines conveniently delays the next enrollment period until just after the 2014 elections.
Open enrollment – which is already causing political headaches for the administration this year – had been set to start Oct. 15, 2014.
That date is now being pushed back a month, a Health and Human Services official told Bloomberg News.
The administration cited technical reasons, saying the date gives insurers “more time to prepare new plans and rates.”
But the new date happens to fall 11 days after the Nov. 4 elections – where Democratic control for the Senate is at stake. Democrats are also hoping to beat back the odds and retake the House.
Any spike in insurance rates would most likely be revealed during the enrollment period — and could infuriate voters.
ObamaCare and the timing of its creation has had significant political consequences ever since Obama signed it into law, before Republicans regained the House in 2010.
The law signed by President Obama instituted a number of popular reforms before his own 2012 reelection – including a ban on discrimination against people with preexisting conditions, and a provision that lets parents cover their children on their own plans until the kids through age 26.
The new health care exchanges that began under the disastrous rollout of the new government website began this fall – when Congress wasn’t up for reelection.
“Consumers will not see their 2015 premiums until after the midterm elections, instead of immediately before,” former industry lobbyist Mike Tuffin told Bloomberg News. “One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to divine the motive here.”
Republicans were quick to pounce on the delay. “Clearly, President Obama does not want voters to see increased prices, more cancelations and decreased options under ObamaCare before they go to the ballot box,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia. “If ObamaCare is so great, why are Democrats so scared of voters knowing its consequences?”