On John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog this morning, he cites the federal government’s estimate of the percent of employers whose health insurance policies for their employees will not be grandfathered in under the new regulations. His table is quite striking.
Goodman labels it “Percent of Employees Who Will Not Be In Grandfathered Plans.” It’s actually, according to the Federal Register (p. 54), “Percent of Employers Relinquishing Grandfather Status.” Either way, what’s striking is how high the percent is. The Department of the Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services estimate that by 2013, 39% to 69% of employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status. Even for large employers, the estimated range is 34% to 64%.
Remember when Obama promised that if you like your health insurance, you can keep it? Well, Obama to America: Tough noogies.
READER COMMENTS
Lord
Jun 16 2010 at 1:26pm
No one should get the idea they could have kept it without it though. It was going to go away one way or another.
David
Jun 16 2010 at 2:36pm
My (private) employer is taking the unprecedented step of moving us from one carrier to another mid-year. We were just notified yesterday that as of July we will be using another provider. We’ve been with our current provider for years, and I was fairly happy with it. I’ve never heard of changes to the plan mid-year, not to mention switching the whole company from one provider to another.
I want Obama to tell me why I can’t keep my current health plan. After all, that is what he promised.
Aaron
Jun 16 2010 at 4:07pm
My employer is switching from a plan where we self insured, and had five or six different plan options with different administrators, to a single national insurer with two plan options. Much of the language is hinting at higher deductibles (they actually mention that we will better be able to identify the true cost of care, and manage our expenses accordingly). I’m not sure what the motivation is, other than cost control.
Andrew_M_Garland
Jun 16 2010 at 9:23pm
ObamaCare Will Reduce Wages
ObamaCare increases health insurance premiums and requires the employer to pay that increase. The employer pays this cost out of the production of the employee. So, the employer must offer a lower wage or fire the employee. The employee will likely blame the employer, not ObamaCare.
mulp
Jun 17 2010 at 1:40am
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