Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama will not reinstate individual health insurance plans that don’t comply with ObamaCare because it would pose too great a risk to the state’s insurance market.
BCBS, which controls almost 90 percent of Alabama’s individual health insurance market, has already sent out 87,000 letters to customers informing them that their current policies will no longer be available after Dec. 31 because they don’t meet ObamaCare-mandated levels of coverage.
However, after facing a political backlash from across the country, President Obama announced last week that “Americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to re-enroll.” In spite of his questionable legal authority to issue such an order, the president went on to say that current policyholders could keep their coverage for another year.
Some critics immediately pointed out that insurance companies who had just spent years working toward complying with over 10,000 pages ObamaCare regulations were now being told to turn on a dime.
Today we found out that it may just be too late.
“The temporary reinstatement of policies that are non-ACA compliant would create dual classes of policyholders and destabilize the state’s insurance market and the risk pools associated with these health plans,” BCBS said in a statement. “The ultimate impact would be higher healthcare costs for all of our customers, now and in the near future.”
Alabama Department of Insurance spokesman Mark Fowler responded to the BCBS statement Wednesday afternoon saying, “State regulators across the nation are justifiably concerned about the potential for market disruptions resulting in higher insurance costs to consumers.” Fowler also questioned President Obama’s legal authority to allow health insurance providers to continue offering plans that don’t comply with the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said the dire consequences Republicans had warned would come as a result of ObamaCare’s passage are now coming to fruition in its implementation.
“If you look beyond the problems associated with the healthcare.gov website, the bottom line is that the things we have been warning about ObamaCare are now coming true,” Aderholt said. “The reason that the insurance companies cannot offer the same plans for the same price is that ObamaCare changed the cost equation. Despite whatever the President wants to say, the actual numbers don’t add up.”
Today’s news from Blue Cross Blue Shield comes on the heels of former Democrat Congressman Artur Davis revealing that even congressional Democrats had expressed concerns about ObamaCare as far back as 2009 but were ignored.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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