Last updated on: 8/27/2010 | Author: ProCon.org

Can I keep my current coverage?

PRO (yes)

Pro

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Section 1251, signed into law on Mar. 23, 2010, available at www.thomas.gov, states:

 

“Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed to require that an individual terminate coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which such individual was enrolled on the date of enactment of this Act.”

 

Mar. 23, 2010 - HR 3590 Title I

Pro

Barack H. Obama, JD, 44th President of the United States, stated at his June 15, 2009 address to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association:

“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.”

[Editors Note:In March 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590), the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HR 4872), and Executive Order 13535 which restricted federal funds from being used for abortion services. Pro, Con, or Not Clearly Pro or Con positions made prior to the final wording of these three elements of the health care reform legislation may have changed since March 2010.] June 15, 2009

Pro

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in the page titled “Answers for Families and Small Businesses” on its website healthreform.gov (accessed June 22, 2010), provided:

“A new rule will allow you to keep your current coverage if you like it and still benefit from many of the new consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, such as a ban on your insurance being terminated just because you get sick and had made an unintentional mistake on your forms.

If your current plan significantly reduces your benefits or increases your out-of-pocket spending above what it was when the new law was enacted, then your plan will lose its ‘grandfather’ status and you will gain additional new benefits under the Act. In the individual market, people change plans more frequently than those insured through employer plans. As such, most of the 17 million people who purchase in the individual market will likely gain all the new protections in the Affordable Care Act in the near term.”

June 22, 2010

CON (no)

Con

John Boehner, Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives (R-OH), wrote in his June 23, 2010 report “Obamacare, Three Months of Broken Promises,” published on the website of the US House of Representatives:

“According to experts, more than 87 million American could lose access to their current health care plan under the new law. Workers at a majority of the nation’s employers – including as many as four out of every five small businesses – would lose their current coverage, thus providing further evidence that ObamaCare is doing exactly the opposite of what Democrats promised it would do.”

June 23, 2010

Con

Marc K. Siegel, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU Medical Center, wrote in his June 15, 2010 Forbes article “The Unmet Promise of Obamacare”:

“The number one question on my patients’ minds as the new health reform bill passed was whether they would be able to keep their current health care plan, like the President promised. This past week, when the new 83-page draft of regulations was released jointly by the IRS, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor, an answer was offered. Unfortunately, it’s a resounding no.

Whenever the federal government enacts a new law, agencies write regulations on how this law will be enforced. The newly released draft is about whether existing insurances can be ‘grandfathered in’ and continue to be legal policies as the new health reform bill, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…

The draft’s own midrange estimates… predict that 66% of the insurance plans offered by small employers and 45% offered by large employers will no longer be legal by 2013. And the numbers are no better for individual policies. The draft estimates that individual policies relinquishing their grandfathered status by failing to comply with the new regulations will be from 40% to 67%.”

June 15, 2010

Con

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press correspondent, wrote in his Aug. 27, 2010 Salt Lake Tribune article “Millions of Seniors May Have to Switch Drug Plans”:

“A new analysis by a leading private research firm [Avalere Health] estimates that more than 3 million beneficiaries will see their current drug plan eliminated as Medicare tries to winnow down duplicative and confusing coverage in order to offer consumers more meaningful choices. Instead of 40 or more plans in each state, beneficiaries would pick from 30 or so.

When other changes are taken into account, as many as 3.7 million Medicare recipients may have to switch, the analysis concluded. That’s about 20 percent of the 17.5 million enrolled in stand-alone drug plans.”

Aug. 27, 2010