According to 45 C.F.R. 147.140(g), here’s the complete list of changes that can cause a plan to lose grandfathered status:
(i) Elimination of benefits [i.e., coverage for particular procedures or conditions]
(ii) Increase in percentage cost-sharing requirement [e.g., coinsurance requirement]
(iii) Increase in a fixed-amount cost-sharing requirement other than a copayment beyond a fixed maximum increase pegged to medical inflation
(iv) Increase in a fixed-amount copayment beyond a fixed maximum increase pegged to medical inflation
(v) Decrease in contribution rate by employers and employee organizations beyond a fixed maximum decrease
(vi) Addition of an annual limit; Decrease in limit for a plan or coverage with only a lifetime limit; or Decrease in limit for a plan or coverage with an annual limit.
Lifetime dollar limits on essential health benefits are prohibited for plan years beginning September 23, 2010. This applies to all plans new and renewing on or after September 23, 2010, including grandfathered plans.
Protections against lifetime limits on coverage apply to all health plans, including grandfathered plans, whether you get coverage through your employer or buy it yourself.
I could be wrong, but I think the (correct) point was that a plan previously having lifetime limits does not prevent it from being grandfathered. It’s just that post-ACA years of the grandfathered plan cannot include those limits.
The GOP has denied every request to fund implementation of Obamacare, including the website.
So yeah, the website is a bit of a mess, but I’m still 100% supportive of the effort to get health care to people. I don’t fault Obama or Sebelius one bit in this, I blame this on the obstructionist GOP, who, days before the exchanges went live, shut down the government for 2 weeks. Any federal program due to be implemented would have had issues. If anyone should be fired or disciplined, it is each and every Republican in Congress who tried to delay and defund this law.
Right. Can you point out his statements to that effect around the time he was blabbering about “You can keep your insurance plan if you like it. Period.”? Because I liked my plan. Still like it. It is way better than anything on Obamacare exchanges. And I can’t keep it - because Obamacare says it cannot exist.
I think at this point all we know is that your insurance company says ‘because of Obamacare it cannot exist’. And that may be true, but we haven’t gotten to the bottom of exactly why. And we know insurance companies in other cases have been disingenuous in their claims that Obamacare is the culprit. So at this point I’m still skeptical.
The time period you asked was "around the time he was blabbering about “You can keep your insurance plan if you like it. Period.” Since he said that quote in both sources, I’m not sure what your problem is.
When Obama said that insurance companies had to offer “free preventive care”, what did he mean by “free”? They had to offer it without raising rates or reducing any other benefits as an offset?
I did check another site before posting, but I can’t seem to find it back now. Regardless, I appear to have been mistaken re lifetime limits, and I apologize for misleading.
Didn’t the shutdown start on the same day - not “days before”? And how did that affect the readiness of the website (development of which spanned a couple of years)?
Richard: I’m not sure if you’re talking about the part (around 1 m) where Obama says if you’re one of the 250M Americans with insurance, you get to keep it and that the ACA will make it more secure and more affordable. But is it really the case that none of us is having to pay more for our existing insurance because of the new requirements the ACA places on it? Even with the subsidies, I’m having a hard time believing that is true.