
Image by Enokson via flickr.
If you tried to get precise numbers about the late 2013 “plan cancellation” imbroglio, you’ll know it was extremely difficult.
No one really was sure about how many plans were canceled, how many would have been canceled even without the Affordable Care Act (there is a lot of “churn” in this market but not a lot of great recent statistics – much of it dates from 2003-04), how many people were quickly rolled into another plan offered by their insurer or how many had a higher sticker price for the new plan but were subsidized in the exchanges, etc.
The political climate – because critics of the ACA were very adept at highlighting unhappy “victims of Obamacare” – made it more difficult. And the fact that the federal HealthCare.gov enrollment site and several of the state exchanges were not working well at the time this all exploded added to the negative narrative. People receiving a plan cancellation letter, who were being told it was purely because of the health law and who couldn’t get online to check out other options were understandably anxious about ending up with no coverage. Continue reading