Obamacare is dead

[Destroyer]

On Friday, December 20, 2013, ObamaCare died. The president announced that if your health care plan was cancelled as a result of the requirements of ObamaCare, you are relieved from having to obey the individual mandate to have health insurance. He also said that a simple catastrophic policy would suffice if you chose to get one and that he would make them available through the exchanges. (In other words, if your policy was cancelled because it was not sufficiently comprehensive, you can buy one even less comprehensive and that will be okay).

But the big news, buried in his Friday afternoon press conference is the retreat from the individual mandate. Right now, the retreat only applies to individuals whose policies have been cancelled, but inevitably, next year, when cancellations of group plans cascade down on the system, these folks as well will be exempted from the individual mandate. Obama can't exempt those with individual policies that were cancelled without exempting everyone who has been cancelled. Its not tenable politically. Either he exempts everyone or he can't exempt anyone. For all practical purposes, the "Affordable" healthcare law is dead.