FACT CHECK: Federal Bureaucrats Will Regulate All Health Insurance Plans

Courtesy of the Senate Policy Committee:

The President just claimed that the new Washington-approved standards set by federal bureaucrats would apply ONLY to individual plans on the exchange. However, the President’s own proposal would extend new mandates to ALL policies, including “grandfathered” insurance plans.  That will require federal bureaucrats in Washington to determine, for instance, what constitutes “proven preventive coverage” for purposes of setting cost-sharing levels, as outlined in the paragraph below.  Again, if you like your current plan, Washington bureaucrats will make you pay more for it – if those bureaucrats ever let you keep that coverage in the first place…
 
Extend Consumer Protections against Health Insurer Practices. The Senate bill includes a “grandfather” policy that allows people who like their current coverage, to keep it. The President’s Proposal adds certain important consumer protections to these “grandfathered” plans. Within months of legislation being enacted, it requires plans to cover adult dependents up to age 26, prohibits rescissions, mandates that plans have a stronger appeals process, and requires State insurance authorities to conduct annual rate review, backed up by the oversight of the HHS Secretary. When the exchanges begin in 2014, the President’s Proposal adds new protections that prohibit all annual and lifetime limits, ban pre-existing condition exclusions, and prohibit discrimination in favor of highly compensated individuals. Beginning in 2018, the President’s Proposal requires “grandfathered” plans to cover proven preventive services with no cost sharing.