The White House on Wednesday announced a new ObamaCare delay that will allow some consumers to keep health plans that do not meet the law’s standards until past the end of the Obama presidency.
The unprecedented move, first reported by The Hill on Monday, will protect vulnerable Democrats in the midterm elections by staving off a wave of cancellation notices that would have hit patients in the final weeks of the campaign.
The policy also means that one of the key features of the Affordable Care Act — minimum healthcare benefit requirements — will not be in place for all Americans when President Obama leaves office.
Senior administration officials insisted that the change will not substantially alter the Affordable Care Act and emphasized that their focus was on flexibility for individuals.
“Given how complex the law is and how many different circumstances people face, we want to show that we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach,” one official told reporters on a conference call.
