Nov 5 2013
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle consider legislation that would allow people to keep the health insurance coverage they had that was canceled as a result of the health law. Elsewhere, Virginia's governor race continues to hinge on the candidates' stances on the law and Senate Democrats may allow a vote on legislation that would end health law subsidies for lawmakers and their aides.
The Associated Press/Washington Post: Lawmakers Push To Keep Obama's Health Care Pledge To Allow People To Keep Their Policies
Little more than a week after millions of consumers received health care cancellation notices, lawmakers in both parties are pushing legislation to redeem President Barack Obama's long-ago pledge that anyone liking their coverage will be allowed to keep it under the nation's controversial new law. The result is a stern new challenge for the White House as it struggles to fix website woes for the signup portal for those seeking to enroll under the law, and simultaneously copes with angry consumers who rightly or wrongly blame "Obamacare" for cancellation letters mailed by insurers (11/4).
The Washington Post: GOP Lawmaker Proposes 'Keep Your Health Plan' Bill
A top House Republican has proposed legislation that would allow the continued use of health plans that existed before January 2013, regardless of whether the coverage meets Affordable Care Act standards. The move comes as a growing number of Americans are complaining about losing their insurance or facing higher premiums because of the law, in addition to ongoing troubles with the online health exchange where individuals can purchase new coverage (Hicks, 11/4).
CQ HealthBeat: Landrieu Bill Would Get Democrats Off The Hook With Policyholders Angry About Cancellations
Congressional Democrats are clearly feeling the heat from simmering public anger over the cancellation of individual market policies that don't comply with the health law's essential benefits requirement. Sen. Mary Landrieu plans to introduce a bill that would let people keep those plans, something that would take the pressure off defenders of the overhaul (Reichard, 11/4).
Politico: Touting Ken Cuccinelli, Ron Paul Urges 'Nullification'
Headlining the final rally of Ken Cuccinelli's underdog campaign for Virginia governor, Ron Paul suggested the "nullification" of Obamacare on Monday night. "Jefferson obviously was a clear leader on the principle of nullification," the former Texas congressman said of the third president. "I've been working on the assumption that nullification is going to come. It's going to be a de facto nullification. It's ugly, but pretty soon things are going to get so bad that we're just going to ignore the feds and live our own lives in our own states" (Hohmann, 11/5).
Politico: Democrats Offer David Vitter A Vote On Obamacare Amendment
Senate Democrats have made an offer for Sen. David Vitter: You can have a vote on your health care amendment, but you have to live with the outcome. The idea is to get the issue out of the way once and for all, so Vitter doesn't continuously push for a vote on virtually every bill that comes to the floor, according to several people familiar with the matter. The Vitter plan -- which would kill federal dollars to help pay for lawmakers' and their aides' Obamacare coverage -- has become a major sticking point as the Louisiana Republican has demanded a vote (Raju and Kim, 11/4).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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High medical debt leads to significant delays in routine and preventive care