Millions who buy their insurance individually may lose their current plans as Obamacare is implemented, NBC News has found.
Four sources confirmed to NBC News that 50 to 75% of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually will likely lose their current plans because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law.
It’s a massive figure that directly contradicts the president’s promises. In 2009, the president told Americans “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” and in 2012, he said “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”
The White House strongly refutes the report. On Twitter, senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer called the story “misleading.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest also tweeted that the report was “not new” and pushed back against its conclusions.
NBC "scoop" cites "normal turnover in the indiv insurance market". That's a) not new b) not caused by #ACA c) the problem #ACA will solve.
— Josh Earnest (@jearnest44) October 28, 2013
NBC News’ Lisa Myers, who co-authored the investigation, said the White House has emphasized that people losing their plans will lose them because they don’t meet the minimum coverage requirements.
“Not cancelled, upgraded!” Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said.
But many were less optimistic.
Those who received cancellation notices were shocked, Myers said, because of the president’s assurances and they “didn’t like the government telling them what they had to buy and they in some cases were more happy with a bare bones policy that they thought met their needs and cost them less,” Myers said.
She added that one interviewed individual found a more comprehensive plans for less but were still “irate” that they had to go shop for a new plan.
“But it is a real problem when you have, on the one hand these tremendous issues with the website,” Bloomberg’s Julie Pace remarked. “And now they’re having to answer questions about whether the president was quite honestly telling the truth to the American people, those are not things you want to be dealing with at this stage.”
Jane Timm