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As President Barack Obama pushed for a new federal health law in 2009, he made a simple pledge: If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your plan. But behind the scenes, White House officials discussed whether that was a promise they could keep.
When the question arose, Mr. Obama's advisers decided that the assertion was fair, interviews with more than a dozen people involved in crafting and explaining the president's health-care plan show.
But at times, there was second-guessing. At one point, aides discussed whether Mr. Obama might use more in-depth discussions, such as media interviews, to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches, a former aide said. Officials worried, though, that delving into details such as the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president's message.
"You try to talk about health care in broad, intelligible points that cut through, and you inevitably lose some accuracy when you do that," the former official said.
The former official added that in the midst of a hard-fought political debate "if you like your plan, you can probably keep it" isn't a salable point.
The breadth of Mr. Obama's statement proved to be a miscalculation. Mr. Obama repeated the claim, with only occasional caveats, through this week, when a flurry of cancellation notices from insurers to customers around the country prompted him to recalibrate. The resulting furor has energized Republican opposition to the plan, which only a few weeks ago had fallen flat as a result of the party's failed attempt to link it to government spending and debt deadlines.
"With 20/20 hindsight, maybe this should have been parsed more carefully,'' said Jim Margolis, a media adviser to Mr. Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012, said of Mr. Obama's broad promise. But, he added, "The president's statement seems fair."
At the time the law was being written, Mr. Obama was trying to make the case for the health-care overhaul in understandable terms, and in an environment in which Republicans were casting it as a "big government'' takeover of the health system. Mr. Obama's aides were focused on telling people that disruption would be minimal and benefits from the law substantial.
Aides said that because insurers could continue offering plans, even those deemed to be substandard, if they were in existence at the time the law passed, Mr. Obama's statement that "you can keep your plan'' was solid.
"We thought we could fulfill the promise with this grandfathering clause,'' said Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania and a former White House health-care adviser.
The health law aims to eliminate certain low-premium policies that the administration said provide skimpy coverage and could leave people with high out-of-pocket costs. While it allows insurers to continue covering longtime customers with policies that were in existence as of March 2010, many insurers are canceling such plans because they would die out, anyway, in the absence of new customers.
About 5% of the U.S. population, or about 15.4 million people, are covered under individual health plans, and many of them—as many as 10 million—are expected to have their health plans terminated by their insurers by year-end, industry experts have said. These customers account for many of those now receiving cancellation notices; Mr. Obama says they will be able to buy better coverage on the new federal insurance exchange.
One former senior administration official said that as the law was being crafted by the White House and lawmakers, some White House policy advisers objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama's "keep your plan'' promise. They were overruled by political aides, the former official said. The White House said it was unaware of the objections.
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When the question arose, Mr. Obama's advisers decided that the assertion was fair, interviews with more than a dozen people involved in crafting and explaining the president's health-care plan show.
But at times, there was second-guessing. At one point, aides discussed whether Mr. Obama might use more in-depth discussions, such as media interviews, to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches, a former aide said. Officials worried, though, that delving into details such as the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president's message.
"You try to talk about health care in broad, intelligible points that cut through, and you inevitably lose some accuracy when you do that," the former official said.
The former official added that in the midst of a hard-fought political debate "if you like your plan, you can probably keep it" isn't a salable point.
The breadth of Mr. Obama's statement proved to be a miscalculation. Mr. Obama repeated the claim, with only occasional caveats, through this week, when a flurry of cancellation notices from insurers to customers around the country prompted him to recalibrate. The resulting furor has energized Republican opposition to the plan, which only a few weeks ago had fallen flat as a result of the party's failed attempt to link it to government spending and debt deadlines.
"With 20/20 hindsight, maybe this should have been parsed more carefully,'' said Jim Margolis, a media adviser to Mr. Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012, said of Mr. Obama's broad promise. But, he added, "The president's statement seems fair."
At the time the law was being written, Mr. Obama was trying to make the case for the health-care overhaul in understandable terms, and in an environment in which Republicans were casting it as a "big government'' takeover of the health system. Mr. Obama's aides were focused on telling people that disruption would be minimal and benefits from the law substantial.
Aides said that because insurers could continue offering plans, even those deemed to be substandard, if they were in existence at the time the law passed, Mr. Obama's statement that "you can keep your plan'' was solid.
"We thought we could fulfill the promise with this grandfathering clause,'' said Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania and a former White House health-care adviser.
The health law aims to eliminate certain low-premium policies that the administration said provide skimpy coverage and could leave people with high out-of-pocket costs. While it allows insurers to continue covering longtime customers with policies that were in existence as of March 2010, many insurers are canceling such plans because they would die out, anyway, in the absence of new customers.
About 5% of the U.S. population, or about 15.4 million people, are covered under individual health plans, and many of them—as many as 10 million—are expected to have their health plans terminated by their insurers by year-end, industry experts have said. These customers account for many of those now receiving cancellation notices; Mr. Obama says they will be able to buy better coverage on the new federal insurance exchange.
One former senior administration official said that as the law was being crafted by the White House and lawmakers, some White House policy advisers objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama's "keep your plan'' promise. They were overruled by political aides, the former official said. The White House said it was unaware of the objections.
More at Link
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