So, apparently, the whole mediasphere is blowing up over this "Obama lied when he said you could keep your insurance" talking point, but there's a little problem with it. Like so many other Republican talking points,
It.
Is.
A.
LIE.
From the Obamacare Facts website:
Grandfathered plans are plans that were purchased before March 23, 2010. These plans have a grandfathered status and don't have to follow ObamaCare's rules and regulations or offer the same benefits, rights and protections as new plans.
From the
WaPo
Let's start with the very basics here. About 15 million people purchase health insurance policies on the individual market. That's about 5 percent of the population. When they do so, they typically purchase a 12-month contract with an insurance company. And when that contract runs out, both the individual and the insurance plan have an escape hatch. The individual can decide to no longer purchase the plan -- and the insurance company can decide to no longer offer the plan.
...
There are some restrictions on how insurance companies can terminate products. HIPAA, a health law passed in the 1990s, does require that insurance companies offer subscribers the opportunity to renew their policy, so long as they continue to pay monthly premiums. If they want to discontinue a subscriber's policy, the insurance plan must provide 90 days notice and "the option to purchase any other individual health insurance coverage currently being offered by the issuer for individuals in that market."
And these are the notices that insurance plans are sending out right now, to hundreds of thousands of subscribers: notices saying that they do not plan to offer the policy anymore, and information about what policies will be available.
(emphasis added)
If the insurers wanted to keep offering the old plans, well, good for them. The "grandfathered" status of those plans means that they can keep offering the same junk insurance to the people who already bought them, for however long they want. But now they don't want to offer the plans any more, and so are doing what the law requires them to do: informing their policyholders that whatever insurance plans they had are being discontinued, and telling them what other options they have.
President Obama said "If you like your insurance, you can keep it." This is absolutely true, since the old plans were grandfathered in. He didn't say "We will force the insurance companies to keep offering the plans that they are currently offering as long as there are people subscribed to them." Which is apparently what the media expected it to mean.
Anyone who got one of those letters should go on their state exchange or the (still buggy, but improving) federal exchange, and shop around for a new plan. Maybe there's a better offer out there from a different company. At an absolute minimum, there are plans that actually cover things out there.