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Insurance cancellations really ‘transition’ letters, says senator; truckers respond

Insurance companies aren't sending out cancellation letters, they're helping people "transition" into Obamacare, according to a top Democrat.

"If [the companies] changed [the insurance plans] then they have to notify the people who have to have the opportunity to have another policy," said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sander Levin, D-Mich.

In fact, according to Levin, the "so-called cancellation notices" merely "help people transition to a new policy," the Washington Examiner reported. Of course, Congress and the president have exempted themselves from having to abide by Obamacare.

Levin’s comments came after the Drudge Report and NBC News broke the story that millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare and that the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

One truck driver responding to the story The Trucker posted Tuesday on the website said on Facebook that “I had really great insurance through my company but got a cancellation letter in the mail yesterday [Monday]. Where is Mr. Teleprompter at now to tell me that I must not have liked it and somehow me losing my insurance is going to help the economy?”

Another driver who commented said his company's CEO suggested looking at healthcare exchanges in that state to same money on premiums, deductibles and possibly premiums. He said insurance companies are sending out cancellation letters because they're following “the letter of the law” because their coverage doesn't meet minimum standards required under the Affordable Care Act.

Levin cited comments made by Florida Blue CEO Patrick Geraghty, the insurance company executive who originally floated the "transitioning" talking point on Sunday's Meet the Press.

"We're not cutting people, we're actually transitioning people," Geraghty told NBC's David Gregory. "What we've been doing is informing folks that their plan doesn't meet the test of the essential health benefits, therefore they have a choice of many options that we make available through the exchange."

Geraghty's argument may exonerate Florida Blue, but the fig leaf doesn't cover Obamacare nearly as well as Levin suggested, given that "the test of the essential health benefits" comes from Obamacare and invalidated the previously acceptable insurance policies, the Examiner story stated.

NBC News reported that “Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, ‘40 to 67 percent’ of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”

That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them, the report stated.

The Obamacare law requires individuals to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty in the form of a tax. However, because of the significant problems that have been reported with launching Obamacare and difficulties people have experienced in signing up for coverage, many believe the plan should be delayed.

A new Public Opinion Strategies poll found that 70 percent of “registered voters” support delaying the individual mandate in the wake of problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Fifty-five percent said they “strongly favor” such a delay.

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].

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