Will You Really Be Able to Keep the Health Insurance Plan You Have?

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) op-ed argues that implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will force individuals to change their health insurance plans, while the White House claims that an individual’s ability to stay with their current plan is explicitly protected by the law. Scott Gottlieb, for the WSJ, claims that the provision requiring insurers to spend at least 80-85 percent of collected insurance premium dollars on medical services (known as the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requirement) will force changes to insurance plans in effect violating the promise that individuals can keep their current plan. The White House fired back stating that most of the provisions in ACA only apply to new insurance plans and those that apply to all policies, such as the MLR provision,  are aimed at protecting consumers and containing cost. 

From the NCHC perspective, only the details of how the law is implemented and the extent to which cost containment reform provisions are applied equitably, system-wide and across the health industry within both the public and private sectors, will determine the future. 

Read the WSJ op-ed.

Read the White House response to the op-ed.

Read the NCHC Rx for Reform.