Other negative public relations issues for Obamacare emerged at the end of October, when as many as 10 million American consumers are expected to have their individual healthcare plans terminated by their insurers effective on or around the first of next year. Currently, about 15 million people are covered under individual healthcare plans without regard to their employment. Many insurers have cancelled the existing healthcare plans either because they did not meet ObamaCare requirements, or out of concern the plans would be uneconomical due to changing participation. While the cancellations should have been expected, they came as a surprise to many who felt they had been promised by the Administration that they could keep their existing healthcare plans if they so decided. While consumers with cancelled individual plans purchase other coverage, many report that the available coverage is much more expensive, particularly since, due to ObamaCare, the healthcare plans have been required to cover additional benefits, many of which consumers would have chosen to do without because of the additional expense involved. Further, because the new health law changes require that sicker people not be required to pay more, those in good health are likely to be required to pay more because of the common pricing. Even House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters that the President should have been "more precise" when he said that if Americans liked their existing health insurance, they could keep it.
As recently as November 13, White House aides from Capitol Hill warned Congressional representatives that it would be a mistake to reinstate policies that do not meet minimum standards set by the healthcare law. The very next day, the Administration announced that insurers can extend by one year those policies they had canceled for failing to meet the law's requirements. The turnaround resulted largely from opposition of the Democratic Party, particularly those seeking re-election during 2014, as to the backlash created by cancelling of millions of individual policies. Many believe that the President broke a campaign promise that everyone could keep their existing healthcare plans if they like them, or at least his failure to warn of the situation. The Administration's reversal on November 13 and 14 was to head off a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 15.
On November 15, the House of Representatives voted by a large majority to change portions of ObamaCare and permit the sale of individual health coverage that falls short of requirements in the law. Some 39 Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure in the House, and the final vote was 261-157. The bill passed by the House of Representatives goes beyond the administrative approach suggested by the Administration, because it would allow insurance firms to sell individual plans to new as well as existing customers, even if the coverage falls short of the new law's requirements.
The White House responded by accusing Republicans as seeking to "sabotage the healthcare law." It is unclear whether the Senate will approve a bill similar to the House, but the Democrats in the Senate are also under great pressure from the public.
Republicans in the House cite the fact that fewer than 27,000 signups have been completed on the federal healthcare site, while millions of individual policies have been canceled due to the new law. The combination of fewer signups under the new law than anticipated, and the possible extension allowing individual policies not meeting the law's requirements to continue, would exacerbate the problem of having healthier consumers stay out of the state exchanges, and create a pool in the state exchanges of the relatively unhealthy insureds, and increase overall costs of exchange-based plans.
There are numerous other issues as to whether state insurance commissions will approve all the changes, and whether the insurance carriers have the time or the inclination to reinstate some of the cancelled plans. There are further questions as to whether some of the changes promoted by the Administration can be made by regulations, or only by changes in the law itself. The impact politically of the developments are so severe that public opinion has shifted some 11% towards Republicans from the adverse public reaction to the government shutdown to the problems created by the implementation of ObamaCare.
