Mich. Lets Insurers Renew Canceled Health Policies
JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan officials say they will heed President Barack Obama's call to allow state health insurers to extend policies failing to meet requirements of the federal health care overhaul.
Department of Insurance and Financial Services Director Ann Flood announced Friday the one-year extensions will offer more choice to consumers who buy their own insurance and a reprieve from policy cancellations planned on Jan. 1.
The decision comes after the faulty launch of a federal health care website in October — on which just 1,300 Michigan residents picked a plan — and amid the potential cancellation of 225,000 policies in Michigan that fall short of the law's minimum coverage standards.
Obama proposed the extensions last week. He was criticized because he pledged Americans could keep their current insurance if they liked it.
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