Obama to announce health-care fix to allow Americans to keep plans

President Obama is preparing to announce Thursday a change in one of the bedrock ideas in the Affordable Care Act, by allowing people with individual insurance policies to keep them for another year, even if they do not comply with the law’s rules for minimum benefits.

The White House, responding to intensifying pressure from disgruntled consumers and Congress, has decided to make the change as a strategy to try to ward off more far-reaching changes that are being advocated on Capitol Hill.

Under the White House’s approach, the Department of Health and Human Services will notify the nation’s state insurance commissioners that they have federal permission to let consumers who already have such insurance policies keep them through 2014. It will be up to each state whether to go along.


The decision runs counter to a central aim of the law, which was to ensure that all people in the U.S. with private health plans are guaranteed at least certain benefits. According to a source familiar with the White House’s thinking, the administration will insist that insurance companies continuing to sell individual insurance policies that do not comply with those standards alert consumers to potentially better and more affordable insurance available through the new federal and state insurance marketplaces.

The White House’s strategy differs from a bill on which the House is to vote Friday, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), which would let new customers buy such meager policies, rather than only allowing existing policy-holders to keep them for an additional year.

The announcement will come amid intensifying pressure from both Republicans and Democrats for the Obama administration to address the various problems that have plagued the law's implementation, including technical glitches on HealthCare.gov.

Recent public opinion surveys show that Obama's image has taken a big hit against the backdrop of the problematic rollout of key components of the law. A Quinnipiac University survey released this week showed the president's job approval rating had fallen to its lowest mark since he became president in 2009.
Obama last week apologized for his long-standing refrain that all Americans could keep their existing health-care plans if they opted to do so.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that despite Obama's impending announcement, House Democrats will also pursue a legislative fix themselves.
In addition to Upton's proposal, two Senate Democrats — Mary Landrieu (La.) and Mark Udall (Colo.) — have introduced their own proposals.

The White House said Obama would make a statement on the health-care law at 11:35 a.m. The president is set to travel to Cleveland later Thursday where he will seek to turn the discussion to the economy. He will then travel to Philadelphia where he'll attend a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.