Thursday, November 7, 2013

ACA Hysteria: Don't Believe Canceled Insurance Hype - Michael Hiltzijk

It's time to tamp down the breathless indignation about these health plan cancellations.

Affordable Care Act critics (as well as governmentphobic corporate propagandists) are crying wolf, using the cancellation letters millions of Americans are receiving from their health insurers, informing them that their health plans won't conform to the new federal standards for health coverage as of Jan. 1.

Back in March, Consumer Reports published a study of many of these plans and placed them in a special category: "junk health insurance." Some plans, the magazine declared, may be worse than none at all.

It's time to tamp down the breathless indignation about these health plan cancellations. Many of the departing plans are being outlawed for good reason, and many of the customers losing them have no idea how much financial exposure they were saddled with in the old days. That's the real scandal in American health insurance, and the Affordable Care Act is designed, rightly, to fix it.

The full article is available here