Anthem Blue Cross is being sued for tricking people into dropping their “grandfathered” plans.
(CNN) – President Barack Obama will lay out an administrative solution to address the problem of people getting cancellation notices from their health insurance providers due to the Affordable Care Act, a senior Democratic source familiar with the plan tells CNN’s Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash.
Obama will deliver remarks at 11:35 a.m. ET in the White House Press Briefing Room, the White House announced Thursday morning.
The plan will in part call for insurance policies to be renewed for one year for those who already have insurance policies in the individual market, the source said.
If an insurance company does renew a substandard plan, it would be required to do two things. First, it would have to notify the policy holder of alternative coverage options. Second, the company would have to disclose all of the benefits a policy holder will lose if she keeps an existing substandard plan.
“Blue Cross successfully enticed tens of thousands of its individual policyholders to switch out of their grandfathered health plans and forever lose their protected grandfathered status,” states the lawsuit. “Blue Cross concealed information about the consequences of switching plans and intentionally misled its policyholders to encourage the replacement of grandfathered policies.”
The source noted the President may disclose additional details.
In addition, the source said the President would allow state insurance commissioners to decide on their own to not permit this renewal.
It’s worth noting, however, that there are some states – including Virginia, Kentucky and Idaho – that require all plans in their state to comply with Affordable Care Act standards.
