Health Care

ObamaCare ‘fix’ will create more problems: Insurance honchos

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s call to delay health plan cancelations might not fix the problem but will create more ObamaCare woes, insurance industry leaders warned Sunday.

Former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said the fix will trigger rate hikes, disrupt insurance markets and some states won’t go along with Obama’s plan.

“Keep in mind it is a suggestion, it is not a ruling and certainly is not a law,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Karen Ignagni, president of the insurance industry lobby America’s Health Insurance Plans, said on the same show that Obama had only complicated the situation.

“We have a policy disagreement,” said said. “When you set rules in place and an industry meets them, and then the rules are changed, that creates the kind of problems that Senator Nelson talked about.”

Nelson and Ignagni struggled to remain supportive of Obama’s effort to allow insurance companies and state regulators to extend plans outlawed under ObamaCare.

“I’m not in the blame game biz,” said Ignagni. “We are focused on trying to address those problems and moving forward.”

“Keep in mind, some of the commissioners have already found a way to extend the coverage people currently have into 2014,” said Nelson. “Others are taking other steps to mitigate against this and others have decided they’re not going to follow the president has suggested.”

New York’s insurance regulators have not yet decided what they will do.

The decision to let extend the old cheaper health plans for people, who are usually healthy, likely will force insurance companies to raise rates on ObamaCare policies to offset the cost of covering enrollees who are sicker, according to insurance experts.

The millions of cancelation notices sent out to Americans, despite Obama’s repeated reassurances that people could keep their current plans, sparked a political inferno that engulfed the White House and the president’s Democratic allies in Congress.

In announcing his plan, Obama repeatedly apologized in a speech Thursday for the “fumbled” rollout of ObamaCare, including the dropped health plans and dysfunctional Web site.

Problems with Obama’s signature health law, officially titled the Affordable Care Act, caused major headaches for Democratic lawmakers who are inextricably tied to it.

A group of 39 House Democrats defected to support a GOP bill Friday that would make health plans outlawed by ObamaCare available to all American through 214, despite a White House veto threat.

Senate Democratic leaders have said that Obama’s fix is enough for now and they likely won’t take up the House bill.

But seven Senate Democrats back legislation similar to the Republican House bill. Continued problems with ObamaCare could force the leadership to rethink its stance.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted Democrats still back the law and that ObamaCare won’t be a factor in next year’s elections.

“I don’t think you can tell what will happen next year. But I will tell you this: Democrats stand tall in support of the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“You can’t be knocked for a loop just because somebody playing politics,” she said.

Later on the same program, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) responded: “No matter how much Congresswoman Pelosi tries to spin this, this is a mess.”