Obamacare Fix Will Blow Up on Insurers

by Jim Tynen, Civitas, November 18, 2013.

The state's insurance commissioner is joining the Obama administration's plan to browbeat/lure/trick insurance companies into ignoring federal law and offering insurance plans that don't meet the minimum requirements for policies under Obamacare.

They'll probably be sorry if they fall for this one.

WRAL reported:

Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin vowed Friday that his agency would speed the approval process for insurers to offer 2014 health plans that don't meet the minimum requirements of the Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama on Thursday granted a one-year exemption for such plans ….

First, this will be fiendishly difficult to implement, and insurers will be left holding the bag if it flops as badly as Obamacare has done so far.

Second, as many have noted, the Affordable Care Act is law — settled law, as Democrats were so quick to remind us mere weeks ago. It was passed by Congress, signed with much ado by the president, then specifically validated by the Supreme Court.

It's the law. What happens, then, if an insurer disregards it, as President Obama and his fellow Democrat, Goodwin, are telling them they should do?

As journalist Megan McArdle mused, "If those policies end up in court, will a judge go along with their creative approach? And if a judge doesn’t go along with it, what sort of chaos will envelop the insurance market?"

The insurance companies would be leaving themselves wide open to a lawsuit by anyone who has any grievance that even touches on these issues. To repeat: the companies would be knowingly breaking a federal law.

And would Obama help them? Sure, just as much as he helped the Syrian rebels, the Americans attacked at Benghazi, and the groups targeted by the IRS.

Back in NC, insurers should understand they are being played for suckers. Trying to rewrite policies in a huge hurry invites major mistakes. And Goodwin seems ready to pounce. According to WRAL:

Insurers will still face consequences if plans are later deemed overpriced, Goodwin said.

"Then, there will be appropriate repercussions against those insurance companies," he said.

So if the insurers go along with the state, they are lining up to be smacked later if the policies are "deemed overpriced."

As he told the N&O:

"Where we would normally catch things on the front end, we will catch things on the back end,” N.C. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said Friday. “If upon later review we discover they’re overcharging and they’re not compliant with the law, insurers will be subject to administrative action.”

The "fixes" are a ticking time bomb. And anyone who gets involved is going get caught in the blast.