Yesterday I pointed out an interesting oddity in the Insurance cancellation debate and today I read a more extensive post by Adrianna McIntyre on The Incidental Economist about the Administration’s plan to “help” the people whose health insurance policies are being canceled. Like all policy changes there are winners and losers. Here is my comment.

In a narrow sense some insurance companies may benefit from this ruling. As an example my policy with Aetna in Ohio is grandfathered since I acquired the policy before March 23, 2010. According to Aetna, policy holders who acquired the policy after that date are not grandfathered and are being canceled even though the policy will continue for people like me in 2014. Since Aetna is not participating in the exchange it would make business sense for them to un-cancel those policies acquired after March 23, 2010, which are just like existing grandfathered polices because they could hold on to existing customers.They become the hero. This a much bigger dilemma for companies participating in the exchanges like Anthem since they are going to get a lot more money by pushing their customers into the exchange. Any way you slice it, they become the goat.  Once again we are reminded that no good deed goes unpunished.