The U.S. individual health insurance market currently totals about 19 million people. Because the Obama administration's regulations on grandfathering existing plans were so stringent about 85% of those, 16 million, are not grandfathered and must comply with Obamacare at their next renewal. The rules are very complex. For example, if you had an individual plan in March of 2010 when the law was passed and you only increased the deductible from $1,000 to $1,500 in the years since, your plan has lost its grandfather status and it will no longer be available to you when it would have renewed in 2014.If you like your health insurance you can keep it? Right!
What does losing grandfather status mean? It means that plans that may have been previously tailored to the individual's actual health care needs will now have to be tailored to meet the one-size-fits all mandates of Obamacare. Are you a young male who doesn't use health insurance much? Sorry, you'll be fined if you don't buy a plan that pays for your annual pap smear. Don't need a pap smear? Too bad, you're going to pay for it and pay for it dearly -- Obamacare relies on healthy people to pay higher premiums to subsidized the sick people. Like the ones with preexisting conditions who want to be covered by health insurance. All plans must provide coverage for people who are already sick and who pays for that? Healthy people, of course. Imagine car insurers having to accept cars with "preexisting" conditions and you, the good driver, having to pay higher premiums to subsidize it? The notion is absurd, right? Well, absurd or not, it is built into Obamacare which is why many of these individual plans are being run out of the insurance market.
Thought we had the freedom of self-determination and personal choice in this country? Think again.
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