CNN has obtained an internal Obama administration document that details a big worry inside the brain trust running Obamacare.
The Healthcare.gov website is garbage, as everyone knows by now. But what happens once the website gets fixed?
Prediction: Pain.
Officials expressed concern that the next shoe to drop in the evolving story about the Affordable Care Act would be disappointment from consumers once they are able to get on the troubled HealthCare.gov website – disappointment because of sticker shock and limited choice, according to a new document obtained by CNN.
“Mike described a general concern of PM (plan management team): getting to the point where the website is functioning properly and individuals begin to select plans; the media attention will follow individuals to plan selection and their ultimate choices; and, in some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience. Additionally, in some cases there will be relatively high cost plans,” say the notes from the Obama administration’s Obamacare ‘War Room’ from one week ago.
Plan management team is a reference to those individuals in the Obama administration tasked with standing up the president’s health care law at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
The discussion appeared to be in reference to an October 24 story by The New York Times titled “Health Care Law Fails to Lower Prices for Rural Areas.”
Supposing that the website gets fixed by the end of November as the brain trust now promises, those Americans suddenly able to shop for insurance face a deadline of December 15 to buy coverage that will kick in by January 1, which is when most of the canceled insurance plans die.
Merry Christmas! You get to pay more of your money for, in many cases, crappier insurance. How much more? On average, about 41% more, according to Avik Roy.
And you’ll be told that you should like it and that it fulfilled Obama’s clear promise! Who are you gonna believe, Barack Obama or your lying ears?
Believe whichever you want, but Obamacare sticker shock could have a big negative impact on the Christmas shopping season — the season that most retailers depend on to get them through the entire next year. The price increases could be enough to force millions of Americans to rethink how they’ll spend for the holidays.
Are we looking at a nasty sequence of events leading to the next economic downturn here?
- Obamacare website starts working.
- Americans losing their plans shop for insurance from the end of November through Dec. 15.
- Sticker shock/weaker plans impact holiday shopping in its final 10 days.
- Retailers take the hit, lay workers off after the lackluster holiday shopping season.
- Economists report unexpected! job losses in January. Manufacturing slips due to dampened demand.
- 2014 begins with an economy circling the drain.
Happy holidays…
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