This was part of the eleventh hour change from last night but wasn’t included in Megyn Kelly’s report that I posted. Not only are they asking insurers to sell non-Obamacare-compliant catastrophic plans, but they are also waiving the penalty for those same people by changing the hardship rules to include them:
DAILY CALLER – President Barack Obama has decided to suspend penalties against several million Americans who have been unable to replace their cancelled pre-Obamacare health plans with Obamacare-compliant plans by Jan. 1.
The presidential clemency partially suspends a primary directive of the law — that people will be punished if they don’t buy Obamacare insurance — and was announced the day before Obama departs for his Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
It was portrayed by officials as a benevolent response to worried Americans in states represented by six Democratic senators.
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When granted by officials, the hardship exemption allows people to not buy insurance, or to buy cheaper bare-bones or catastrophic health-care plans, without suffering the Obamacare tax penalty.
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The hardship decision announced Dec. 19 does not allow the roughly 5 million victims of Obamacare to regain the plans that were cancelled by Obama’s law, which passed in 2010 without any GOP support in Congress.
The new hardship plan comes only a few days before the Dec. 23 deadline for buying insurance that is active Jan 1.
The new exemption was likely approved by Obama, because it violates a primary directive of his Obamacare network. That directive says Americans must buy Obamacare-compliant health-care plans, or else face tax penalties.
As Mark Levin made the point a couple of months ago, this is not the same Obamacare that was passed by Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court. No, this is a far cry different.