Lucrum, anyone who likes may obtain a non-compliant policy if the insurers in his/her state are allowed by that state's regulators to offer it, and the insurance company decides to offer them. That has always been true. But apparently Obama is ordering HHS to allow such non-complying policies to satisfy the mandatory insurance requirement, and consequently if you buy one of these individual policies you wouldn't have to pay a penalty.
I would expect that deciding which policies qualify under the law is very much an administrative responsibility of HHS. HHS is , of course, under the Executive Branch, and part of the Presidents Cabinet. Obama's decision was the wrong one, but i seriously doubt he has stepped outside the bounds of his authority. If he had, you'd here about it from the Republican leadership!
These are cheap policies with poor coverage, and I'd be real surprised if HHS lets them qualify for government subsidies, so in the end, many of the folks that buy these policies may be wasting their money, when they could have acquired a comprehensive non-cancelable policy for likely not much more, if they qualify for a subsidy. Probably the insurance companies will bump up the cost of these policies anyway. They can do as they like on these individual policies and have traditionally bumped the rate up every year anyway. The Federal government has virtually no control over what these companies do intrastate because of the McCarran Ferguson Act. But HHS can dictate to them what features have to be in the policies to qualify under the ACA, and companies will naturally comply if they want to sell a lot of qualifying policies..
Do you know if they are going to let these individual policies qualify for subsidies? I would think not. I assume you have to buy them directly from a company operating in your State. Many of the folks who are clamoring for these cheap policies are going to discover that they are not a very good deal.
I would expect that deciding which policies qualify under the law is very much an administrative responsibility of HHS. HHS is , of course, under the Executive Branch, and part of the Presidents Cabinet. Obama's decision was the wrong one, but i seriously doubt he has stepped outside the bounds of his authority. If he had, you'd here about it from the Republican leadership!
These are cheap policies with poor coverage, and I'd be real surprised if HHS lets them qualify for government subsidies, so in the end, many of the folks that buy these policies may be wasting their money, when they could have acquired a comprehensive non-cancelable policy for likely not much more, if they qualify for a subsidy. Probably the insurance companies will bump up the cost of these policies anyway. They can do as they like on these individual policies and have traditionally bumped the rate up every year anyway. The Federal government has virtually no control over what these companies do intrastate because of the McCarran Ferguson Act. But HHS can dictate to them what features have to be in the policies to qualify under the ACA, and companies will naturally comply if they want to sell a lot of qualifying policies..
Do you know if they are going to let these individual policies qualify for subsidies? I would think not. I assume you have to buy them directly from a company operating in your State. Many of the folks who are clamoring for these cheap policies are going to discover that they are not a very good deal.
