{"id":11655,"date":"2013-11-16T00:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T08:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=11655"},"modified":"2013-11-16T00:05:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T08:05:55","slug":"a-politically-necessary-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/16\/a-politically-necessary-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"A Politically Necessary Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had an insurance plan that I liked, and all of a sudden I found myself with the choice of losing my insurance or opting for a plan that cost me almost twice as much, had higher co-pays, and covered less.  Of course that happened because of ObamaCare, and I should blame it on the Democrats, right?  WRONG!  The year was 2004, and the insurance was my company health plan.  When Barack Obama promised that, if you like your insurance, you can keep it, he was not thinking about situations like mine.  That was a mistake on his part, and his fix for it is also a mistake.  Sadly, it is a politically necessary mistake.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"1116ObamaCareFix\"President Obama, trying to quell a growing furor over the rollout of his health care law, bowed to bipartisan pressure on Thursday and announced a policy reversal that would allow insurance companies to temporarily keep people on health plans that were to be canceled under the new law because they did not meet minimum standards<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The decision to allow the policies to remain in effect for a year without penalties represented the Obama administration\u2019s hurriedly developed effort to address one of the major complaints about the beleaguered health care law. It seemed for the moment to calm rising anger and fear of a political backlash among congressional Democrats who had been threatening to support various legislative solutions opposed by the White House because of their potential to undermine the law. <\/p>\n

Senate Democratic leaders said they did not see the need for an immediate legislative fix \u2014 a victory for White House officials worried that momentum was building toward consideration of a measure to force the change. <\/p>\n

The Republican-controlled House is still set to vote Friday on a bill by Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, that would allow Americans to keep their existing health coverage through 2014 without penalties \u2014 as well as allow new people to continue to buy the plans, something the White House said would gut the Affordable Care Act<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

Lawrence O’Donnell discussed Obama’s Plan with Steve Kornacki and Eugene Robinson.  (I was unable to find this video in a format available to international viewers.  The piece is entitled President Obama: \u2018I Fumbled\u2019<\/em>.  Hopefully you can find it the time this is posted.)<\/font><\/p>\n