More on the "train wreck".
WASHINGTON, November 14, 2013 – President Obama continues to miss the mark. Federal law already prohibits insurance companies from cancelling policies, and his “fix” is a flop.
Millions of insurance policies are being cancelled throughout the country, as reports confirm. Democrats were aware this would happen under the new Obamacare law. However, these millions of insurance policies should never have been cancelled.
Federal law prohibits their cancellation.
In an interview with The Washington Times, C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance and Obamacare expert in Illinois, explains that the HIPAA law section 2742 (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) does not permit these insurance policies to be cancelled. It has been illegal since 1997 to cancel someone’s health insurance coverage when you are sick or when you have claims.
During the original fight to pass the Obamacare law, Democrats frequently paraded people across press conference stages to explain that they had lost their individual health insurance policies when they became sick. These same lawmakers evidently failed to recognize that what those insurance companies were doing was already illegal.
They could have helped those constituents by having their policies reinstated, but instead chose to create political hysteria to further their agenda...
Why are policies being cancelled if federal law prohibits it? Insurance companies seem to be only reviewing and implementing the regulations created under the new Obamacare law, rather than enforcing a law that has been on the books for nearly two decades. Perhaps this was a known aspects of negotiation to bring the health insurance companies on board. Companies’ profit margins were expected to be higher from policies purchased through the exchange. Individuals would be purchasing required levels of coverage that were so high as to be never be utilized. When a policy for a man must include coverage for mammograms, birth control, abortion and other elements he would clearly never claim, it may be more evident why an insurance would select to cancel someone’s plan under the proviso that it was required with the new Obamacare law.
Furthermore, President Obama is so desperate to move people into the exchanges that existing laws are being altogether ignored. In Obama’s press conference Thursday, he instructed insurance companies to renew these cancelled policies and to provide individuals with other options. There was never mention of the fact that federal law prohibits was is currently taking place. Just as Congressmen are pre-occupied with pre-existing conditions being covered, it would behoove them to also reference, respect and enforce pre-existing laws.
Approximately 14 million policies were purchased after the Obamacare passed that were not grandfathered. These are all expected to be cancelled due to Obamacare regulations. However, HIPAA prevents them from being cancelled, regardless of what HHS has regulated, because the federal law cannot be usurped by Sebelius’ entries in to the federal register.
When President Obama says that he is going to “fix” this situation, perhaps what he should do is simply allow federal law to be enforced. He still misses the mark in his explanation Thursday.
As a general rule you do not mess with HIPAA regulations unless you want your little derriere to be in the proverbial sling. But what does law, statutory or even Constitutional, mean to this mob? This thing had an illegitimate birth and is continuing on the course established in its beginning.
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/brenner-brief/2013/nov/14/obama-still-misses-mark-hipaa-prohibits-health-ins/
