From Coyote:
Insurance Companies Got Thrown Under the Bus Today. And They Know It.
November 14, 2013, 12:52 pmWell, so much for the implicit gag order Obama has had on the insurance companies. Bet we will find out a lot more interesting details about the exchange rollouts now.
[T]he White House has its own idea to stop the bleeding: Allow insurers to renew existing plans in 2014 (which means they could continue into 2015) while forcing them to send Landrieu-like letters explaining why their plans don’t conform to the Affordable Care Act’s standards.
This doesn’t really ensure anyone can actually keep their plan — which means it also doesn’t affect premiums in the exchanges. But it makes it easier for Democrats to blame insurers for canceling these plans. And it perhaps makes it easier for the White House to stop congressional Democrats from signing onto something like Landrieu or Udall.
The insurance industry is furious. They’ve been working with the White House to get HealthCare.Gov up and running and they’ve been devoting countless man hours to dealing with the problems and they’ve been taking the heat from their customers over canceled plans, and now the Obama administration wants to make them into a scapegoat.
“This doesn’t change anything other than force insurers to be the political flack jackets for the administration,” an insurance industry insider told Evan McMorris-Santoro. “So now, when we don’t offer these policies, the White House can say it’s the insurers doing this and not being flexible.”
This is like telling GE to reintroduce 100 watt lightbulbs on thirty days notice, and then blaming them if they don’t do it. Or as I tweeted earlier,
Obama telling insurers they can reinstate plans is like my wife telling me to take the exit we passed two miles ago @instapundit@mfcannon
— Coyoteblog (@Coyoteblog) November 14, 2013
The crickets are hibernating in the cellar, WC. It has been a month since I have seen any sign of your senator Chuck. Maybe he took the same lifeboat with Bill.