(Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama directed his aides to look for “administrative solutions” to halt cancellations of individual insurance policies as a result of his health care law, a spokesman said Friday.
“The president did acknowledge that there are some gaps in the law that need to be repaired,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, a day after the president said he’s “sorry” some people are getting cancellation letters from insurers.
White House staff members met at the Capitol today with representatives of top House Democrats to present ideas for changes that wouldn’t require legislation, according to a leadership aide, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was private.
Obama and his allies are acting to head off legislative action to alter the Affordable Care Act, the president’s signature domestic achievement. The Republican-controlled House is poised to vote next week on a measure that would allow health care plans currently available to continue into next year without penalty. Two Democratic senators, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, also have made proposals to address signup delays and canceled policies.
Political concerns
Last month’s faulty roll-out of the website designed to enable Americans to shop for coverage and revelations that hundreds of thousands of people have received cancellation notices from their insurers have driven down Obama’s approval ratings and given ammunition to Republicans opposed to the law.
Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, subpoenaed the Obama administration’s technology chief to testify before the panel on Nov. 13 about the website’s troubles.
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park is “the only invited witness who remains unwilling to appear voluntarily,” Issa said in a letter to Park released tonight by the panel.
The technical failures and cancellations have also sparked an outcry among some Democratic lawmakers who are up for re-election next year and face the prospect that their Republican opponents will use them as campaign issues.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House Republicans’ campaign arm, is targeting Democrats, urging them to apologize for problems with the health-care law. A release titled “It’s Your Turn to Apologize” went out to dozens of Democratic districts, including those represented by Ron Barber of Arizona, Nick Rahall of West Virginia, Joe Garcia of Florida and Jim Himes of Connecticut.
Changes Urged
Obama’s allies are pushing the White House to make changes, including delaying penalties and extending the enrollment period for the insurance policies. Those kinds of fixes could give Democrats in vulnerable seats a way to acknowledge the problems with the law without undermining one of their party’s major achievements.
The law requires all Americans to be covered next year or pay a penalty. Those who want plans that begin Jan. 1 must enroll by Dec. 15 — by mail, phone or through the federal or state-run exchanges. Many of the plans being canceled don’t meet the coverage requirements under the law and have been changed by insurers since the law took effect in 2010.
“The president has said for years now that he is open to working with members of Congress that have a legitimate interest in trying to strengthen the Affordable Care Act,” Earnest said, adding that the White House prefers executive solutions to congressional legislation.
Obama apology
Obama’s pledge that individuals would be able to keep their coverage and their doctors was a central selling point of his health-care overhaul, aimed at calming consumers concerned that they would be forced to give up policies and doctors they liked as the program expanded coverage to many of the nation’s 48 million uninsured.
In his apology to Americans who are losing coverage as a result of the law, Obama said he’s “sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.”
Speaking in an interview yesterday with NBC News at the White House, the president said, “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.”
Republicans seized on the president’s remarks and criticized him for not supporting legislation they have pushed that would allow Americans to keep their current plans.
“If the president is truly sorry for breaking his promises to the American people, he’ll do more than just issue a half-hearted apology on TV,” Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement yesterday.
