The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the White House will allow Americans to keep their garbage insurance plans.
The White House on Thursday will announce a plan for allowing insurance companies to continue offering existing individual insurance policies even if they fall short of the coverage standards set by the 2010 health-care law, a Democratic official briefed on the plan said.
The move is designed to ease the problem created by the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of policies in recent weeks. President Barack Obama will deliver a statement on the health law at 11:35 a.m. EST, the White House said, as the administration signaled it was open to legislation to fix problems with the rollout.
The move is likely to make it easier for the White House to dissuade Democrats from voting for a House Republican bill due to come to a vote on Friday that the Obama administration believes goes too far in trying to address the cancellation problem.
The Obama plan, which the official said could be implemented without passing legislation, would allow insurance companies to extend “substandard” plans in 2014 only if they are already in existence. Unlike the House bill, the administration plan wouldn’t allow insurance companies to offer such plans to new customers.
