As Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner reports, the House has passed legislation that will “exempt former Obamacare enrollees from the individual mandate if they lose insurance due to the collapse of one of the federally-backed markets.”
The bill passed with a bit of bipartisan support, with 16 Democrats joining the Republicans to approve it 258-165.
But President Obama, with his eyes fixed firmly on his “legacy”, remains protective of his signature legislative accomplishment and threatens to veto the legislation. So the Affordable Care Act remains afloat. But barely. And we learn that in Tennessee,
Blue Cross Blue Shield has decided not to offer individual insurance plans in or outside of the Obamacare marketplace for Knoxville and the surrounding counties, as well as the areas near Nashville and Memphis. More than 100,000 Tennesseans will now need to find new health insurance by the new year, local media reports.
That would be in addition to some 750,000 families affected by the closure of 16 of the 23 co-ops created by the healthcare law.
This story is becoming sort of routine, with only the dateline changing. It has been a long and depressing voyage from the days of “If you like your plan …” and “the average family will see $2,500 in annual savings” to this shipwreck. But, then, maybe the whole thing was a false flag operation, and when the Affordable Care Act finally slips beneath the waves, single payer will be there to rescue the survivors.
