Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking minority member on the committee, pointed out that President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated that nobody would lose their current coverage if they liked it under the federal healthcare overhaul. He called for passage of legislation to give teeth to that assertion.
“Why don't we put the president's words into law?” Alexander asked.
Tavenner pointed out that any insurance product that was available at the time the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in 2010—and that hasn't been substantially changed in the ensuing years—is “grandfathered” in as acceptable. But she acknowledged that many current individual policies don't meet that standard. About 5% of the total health insurance market is composed of individual-market plans.
“These plans routinely change,” Tavenner said. “The churn of these plans is greater than 50% per year.”
During a House hearing last week, Tavenner apologized for the problem-plagued rollout of the website. She struck a more optimistic tone at Tuesday's hearing, pointing out that nearly 700,000 applications have been filled out by individuals through the federally run and state-run exchanges. She also indicated that they anticipate enrolling 800,000 individuals in October and November. But she again refused to provide any specific current enrollment figures. She said that information will be released next week.
That led Alexander to express exasperation about the lack of publicly available data. “Why don't you release it daily?” he queried.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) expressed concern that insurance companies will be handcuffed in trying to come up with reliable rates for 2015 because of the slow pace of enrollments ahead of the March 31 deadline. He pointed out that insurers will need to start submitting those rates in April and may not have a full understanding of the marketplace on which to make those financial calculations.
“That's the month right before April,” Burr said of the open enrollment deadline. “In other words, a day before they start submitting.”
Follow Paul Demko on Twitter: @MHpdemko
