Comment: Obamacare is now selling “substandard” plans to young people in New York, and it’s one of their most popular plans. But we were told not terribly long ago that Obamacare was needed precisely to eliminate these “substandard” plans.
Join us on a brief trip down memory lane and listen to the President disparage the stripped-down “substandard” plans sold by “bad-apple insurers” he said we needed the UnAffordable Act to eliminate.
“One of the things health reform was designed to do was to help not only the uninsured, but also the underinsured. And there are a number of Americans –- fewer than 5 percent of Americans -– who’ve got cut-rate plans that don’t offer real financial protection in the event of a serious illness or an accident. Remember, before the Affordable Care Act, these bad-apple insurers had free rein every single year to limit the care that you received, or use minor preexisting conditions to jack up your premiums or bill you into bankruptcy. So a lot of people thought they were buying coverage, and it turned out not to be so good.
[...] But ever since the law was passed, if insurers decided to downgrade or cancel these substandard plans, what we said under the law is you’ve got to replace them with quality, comprehensive coverage – because that, too, was a central premise of the Affordable Care Act from the very beginning.”
–President Barack Obama, Oct. 30, 2013
“Amid sustained controversy over the cost of Obamacare plans throughout the country, New York is aggressively promoting a stripped-down, low-cost version that officials credit with reducing expenses for the state.”
“Tailored to low-income New Yorkers who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the “Essential Plan” comes with premiums of $20 per month or less.”
“The plan proves especially popular among New Yorkers ages 27 to 35 who want low premiums and have minimal expenses, said Leslie Moran, vice president of the New York Health Plan Association. Her group represents 29 insurers, most of which participate in New York’s heath insurance exchange.”
New York promotes ‘stripped-down’ health insurance
By Joe Mahoney CNHI State Reporter, Nov. 6, 2016