President Obama Forgets that he said under his new health care law that “if you like your plan you can keep it” and that health care costs would go down. But AFP activists want to remind the President that Americans will be unable to keep their health care plan and that costs continue to skyrocket.
During the debate over his health care reform package, President Obama assured that “nothing in our plans requires you to change what you have” and “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” However, under a regulation issued by President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services in 2010, insurance policies are only “grandfathered” into compliance if they meet specific criteria. Plans are not able to raise co-insurance rates, increase co-payments by more than $5, change employer-paid portions, or drop coverage for specific diseases; restrictions that are not present within the language of the bill.

According to a McKinsey survey of more than 1,300 employers, 30 percent anticipate dropping coverage. Additionally, the President’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that 14 million Americans would lose employer-sponsored coverage.

Instead, the Administration opted to create additional requirements that burden employers with higher cost options, and the inability to cost-share, under the guise of letting individuals to keep their plans. Premiums on health insurance increased by an average of 9% in 2011, costing more than $15,000 for family coverage, as insurance companies attempt to comply with the numerous regulations and mandates in the President’s health care law.