, Columnist
More Obamacare Delays. Surprised?
The reason to worry about the retroactive payments is not what they will do to the system, or even the insurers, but what their introduction says about the state of the Obamacare rollout.Â
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Last week, the Barack Obama administration asked health insurers to allow "retroactive payment" for policies that begin Jan. 1. The move was widely seen as a response to the problems the exchanges have been having. With millions of current policies being canceled, the administration understandably wants to minimize the possibility that people will be left uninsured because of a paperwork error.
This week, Reuters reported that insurers are a little worried about the possibility that people will game the system: have a bad emergency room visit on Jan. 3, pay for their insurance Jan. 4. Unsurprisingly, I've seen this popping up here and there in the conservative media world. Is this yet another unfolding Obamacare disaster?