Remember the oft-repeated claim that if you like your current healthcare insurance policy you can keep it? Well, maybe not. Or perhaps in such an altered state as to make the policy unrecognizable–and more expensive.
A very complicated article on the subject in today’s Washington Post deals with the issue of which plans will be grandfathered into the new system. I found the article incredibly difficult, but one thing was clear: even if your plan is ostensibly grandfathered into the system, it might not, in essence, continue to be the plan you now have:
On Monday, the administration issued new rules to fulfill that promise. But your plan might not be quite the same — it could offer more benefits, and it could cost more.
The administration estimates that many plans will end up changing, prompting Republicans to accuse the president of breaking his word.
The tempest involves an issue known as “grandfathering.” Consistent with Obama’s promise, the legislation said health plans in existence when the law was enacted are exempt from some of its requirements. But the law left it to the administration to decide how much a health plan can change without forfeiting that exemption.
Don’t you love that word “tempest”-so often associated with teapots? But this will be no small matter for small businesses, many of which will be hard-pressed to meet the new, increased costs of providing health benefits, even if their policies are officially grandfathered into the new system.