Arkansas: Republican Congressmen too lazy or willfully ignorant to bother fact-checking

Yeah, yeah, I know...least-shocking headline of the day, right?

Ever since the 2014 ACA open enrollment period ended in April and the hoopla over this site and my bean-counting died down, I've been wondering whether what I'm doing here is still relevant. After all, as I noted many times last winter/spring, I never intended on keeping the site live and active this long; my original plan was to shut it down sometime in late April, Mission Accomplished and all that.

However, stories like this one reassure me that the need for up-to-date, accurate information regarding ACA data is still alive and well.

David Ramsey of the Arkansas Times reports:

Congressmen Rick Crawford,Tim Griffin, Steve Womack and Tom Cotton sent a letter today to Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) Commissioner Jay Bradford asking for details on 2015 rates on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, the Obamacare-created health insurance exchange. Apparently, the Arkansas congressional delegation is getting their (misleading) information from Americans for Prosperity. They claim that a wave of cancellations is coming this fall in Arkansas because of Obamacare and that consumers therefore need to begin to shop for alternatives for 2015 on the Marketplace.

In fact, no plans have been cancelled due to Obamacare non-compliance in Arkansas. And no one will be kicked off their plan due to Obamacare non-compliance this fall. Apparently unbeknownst to the Arkansas Congressional delegation, AID decided back in March to take advantage of a change in federal rules and allow insurance carriers to continue to offer non-compliant individual health insurance plans in the state through October of 2016 (which means consumers can keep their plans through the fall of 2017). All of the state's major carriers have told AID they plan to continue to offer these non-compliant plans to consumers who currently have them. 

In other words, consumers with non-compliant Obamcare plans won't be getting cancellation letters this fall.