The Principal Financial Group announced yesterday that it will stop selling health insurance because of the Democrats’ health overhaul.  This means that 840,000 Americans will lose their current health plan.  Even more alarming, the New York Times reports that, “More insurers are likely to follow Principal’s lead.”  Health policy consultant, Robert Laszewski, warns that as smaller insurers stop offering coverage, it will “likely to lead to higher prices because large players will no longer face the competition from the smaller plans.”

Once fully implemented, the Obama Administration’s own predictions show that 7 in 10 Americans with employer-provided health insurance will lose their current health plan and 9 out of 10 seniors who have retiree drug coverage will lose it by 2016 as a result of the Democrats’ health care law. 

In addition to the 840,000 losing coverage as a result of the Principal’s decision:

• 3 million seniors are being forced out of the Medicare plans they are currently enrolled in. 
• Fast-food giant McDonald’s has indicated it may also eliminate health insurance for 30,000 hourly employees because of ObamaCare.  
• 22,000 seniors will lose their Medicare plan when Harvard Pilgrim Health Care stops offering it next year.
• Maine’s Superintendent of Insurance has warned that without a waiver from ObamaCare, one-third of all privately insured Maine residents who purchase health insurance on their own would lose coverage. 
• Virginia-based nHealth announced it was shutting down its operations in response to the Democrats’ health law. 
• Additionally, major insurers like Anthem BlueCross and BlueShield, Aetna, Cigna, CoventryOne, Humana and UnitedHealthCare are going to stop selling child-only health care policies in many states.

Despite President Obama’s promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan,” the opposite is proving to be true.  Americans across the country are at risk of losing their health plan because of the Democrats’ risky trillion dollar experiment.  It is time to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense solutions that lower health care costs and ensure that those who want to keep their current plan are allowed to do so.

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