Congressman James Clyburn isn’t buying the argument that the Affordable Care Act is forcing carriers to change or cancel policies any more than usual. Despite industry accounts to the contrary, Clyburn believes insurance carriers have a long history of canceling coverage and are using the ACA as an excuse to drop even more people.
“I’ve been hearing from my constituents for the entire 21 years I’ve been in Congress about cancellation letters that they have been getting from insurance companies,” Clyburn said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. “Get sick, go for your second treatment, you get a cancellation letter.”
Clyburn, a democrat representing South Carolina, said even the new policy that previously-canceled plans can be extended through 2014 is being used by carriers to disallow health coverage.
“The fact of the matter is, we’re trying to stop these cancellation letters, and now a few insurance companies have decided to use the Affordable Care Act to send out a new set of cancellation letters,” he said.
Christopher Condeluci, a former Senate Finance Committee tax counsel, apparently anticipated such a reaction to the White House’s decision to defer to state insurance commissioners and health insurers as to how to proceed.
“Now the state insurance commissioners and the insurance companies are going to look like the bad guys, not the president,” Condeluci told LifeHealthPro.
Commissioners appear to be divided on the issue, while carriers are at a loss for how to “un-cancel” policies that have been deleted from company computers and may disrupt the market in the long run.
