re: #645 OldLineTexan

I agree … do you see anywhere in the MM article where they specify “new”?

They don’t use the word ‘new’, but that’s what this means:

In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, the provision to which the editorial referred establishes the conditions under which existing private plans would be exempted from the requirement that they participate in the Health Insurance Exchange. Individual health insurance plans that do not meet the “grandfather” conditions would still be available for purchase, but only through the Exchange and subject to those regulations.

And this (i’m snipping out)

Sec. 102 subsection (c) states that “Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan.”

(bolding mine)

It’s definitely confusingly written. Also, as lincolntf says at 647, who knows what this “transparency” means in terms of the HIE?

Seems like the real worry is that the private insurance plans available after Y1 in the Health Insurance Exchange won’t be able to compete with the public ones, so you wind up with a situation where new insurance plans purchased by individuals or small businesses are all de facto public plans. What effect that might have, I don’t know.