Obama administration: Only 500k in U.S. with cancelled plans to lose coverage

Fewer than 500,000 people who had their individual insurance policies cancelled will be without coverage on January 1, the Obama administration estimated Thursday (Source: “Only 500,000 people with cancelled policies will lose health care coverage,” McClatchy News Service, Dec. 20, 2013).

Last month millions of Americans were notified that their individual policies would be cancelled for not meeting standards set in the Affordable Care Act. But senior White House officials on Thursday said those estimates were vastly overstated. Insurers are instead auto-enrolling most customers who received cancellation letters into new plans.

Also on Thursday, the Obama administration announced the creation of a hardship exemption that allows people whose policy was cancelled to enroll in catastrophic coverage if marketplace plans in their area are more expensive than their old cancelled policies.