The numbers for the ACA in California are cold: 900,000 Californians will lose their individual health care plans Dec. 31. About 300,000 will be eligible subsidized coverage in the exchange and most will get better coverage at lower cost. The losers are professionals, entrepreneurs, and mom and pop business owners who did the right thing by buying private health insurance. They number about 600,000. The are losing their coverage and facing higher rates to buy replacement coverage that is ACA-compliant.
Individual policyholders represent only 7 percent of the health insurance market, but they are an attractive demographic and the wrong people to anger. They are proactive enough to have bought their own coverage, successful enough to afford it and vocal when they realize that their premiums are likely to rise - even double for some.
Obama played the hero for some allowing insurance companies to keep their customers on existing plans through 2014. But the Covered California board ruled against that extension. In the end, some 600,000 Californians who don’t qualify for subsidies should expect to pay more a lot more an many case.
People who did everything right know now that they cannot keep the plans they had - and they’re the first in line to be handed the real bill for the Affordable Care Act.