As a practical matter the changes proposed today by the president can be put into effect. Directly speaking to the question youre asking right now. We also heard from an Organization Called ahim. They represent some of the nations and servers. They said one of the problems is this new idea could destabilize the market and ultimately cause premiums to go up. The white house is convinced that while there might be some frustration among the insurance community, in the sotorortorm t term, they still dastand to benefit from this. The president s intention today was to focus on the event that will take place in cleveland. Hell be at a private company, a Steel Manufacturing plant. Its significant for a variety of reasons. The president s going to try to focus on manufacturing, investments. This place produces steel that helps the Auto Industry that the white house views as a positive for them, if not for the president s action, the Auto Industry wouldnt be in the condition that it is right now. It provides steel mostly for fuelefficient cars as well. Another item that benefits the president s strengths. Obviously, hes mostly on the defensive right now. We saw him in a way we havent seen this president through the course of his presidency as its been described by a lot of analysts. This is a crisis this president hasnt experienced before, not just because of the challenges with the law but really the questions about the president s competency and leadership, all things hes trying to head off going forward. All right. Peter alexander at the white house. Thanks so much. And to help break this down, we have josh barro. Josh, we just heard peter break down the president s plan to allow insurers the option to offer current plans through 2014, but insurers will be forced to inform those patients exactly what is lacking. It sounds to me an awful lot like what House Republicans have offered up, led by congressman fred upton. The only difference being outsiders could also opt in. So help us understand the difference. Right. There are two key differences between what the president laid out today and what House Republicans, including fred upton, whos a republican from michigan, have been putting forward. The president east plan is only for one year. It says that plans can be extended just through 2014 whereas the Republican House bill would allow these plans to be extended indefinitely. The president s plan only applies to people who are already on these kinds of coverage, whereas congressman upton would allow new people to buy into these old plans that dont meet the new requirements under obama care. The president s proposal is a lot more limited. And theres something to what the white house is saying about how, yes, this will have impacts on the Insurance Market. There are good reasons why insurers are displeased about it. But the effects are likely to be fairly limited over the long term, partly because this is only supposed to go for one year, although who knows what will happen at the end of 2014 if we do this and people say, well, i still dont want to lose my plan. Its a very key thing that only people on the existing plans can stay on them. Theres a lot of what they call churn in the individual Insurance Market. People change plans a lot. If you say you can stay on the same plan that you were on as of 2013, most people, for one reason or another, they have a change in an employment situation, move to a new state, will have a reason they want to change to a new plan. Eventually people should get into the new exchanges and out of the old plans. I get kind of the key difference here that youre pointing out is that it the upton bill is permanent. The obama fix would just be for a year, but the piece of this that doesnt make sense to me is it seems like, for me, the two logical directions for the president to go would either be to sort of tough it out, to wait for the Health Care Website to get back online and working properly to hope that once people can actually go on to the website and access insurance because the law is working essentially as designed. Once they can see whats available to them, they will have more stories of people having success with the website. Either stick it out, or if youre really interested in providing political cover for red state democrats, which i think is what a lot of this is about, why not give them an opportunity to vote on something in the house, in the senate so that they can then go to their constituents and say, we were part of fixing this problem, rather than having to tell their constituents in states and districts where theres very little trust for the president , trust the president , hes working on it, hes fixing it. So why did the president decide to go in the direction of an adnistrative fix rather than tweaking the upton bill, working with democrats to put forward some legislation so there could be something passed through the hill . I think the president was likely afraid of what would have come out of that legislative process. The votes respect just about giving democrats cover. There would have to be something that came through a negotiation between republicans in the house and democrats in the senate. Negotiations between republicans in the house and democrats in the senate usually dont go very well. I think the president would be afraid that that bill would come back, for example, with allowing new people to buy into these plans with a fix that would go for more than one year josh, i just want to ask you one other thing about that. A lot of the reporting is also saying, for example, Insurance Industry sources told politico that its likely too late to undo the cancellation notices that have already gone out anyway, so whether youre just allowing people already in the plans to buy into these plans or whether youre allowing new people in, it doesnt seem like the Insurance Companies are likely to continue these plans anyway. I think thatll be a mixed bag. Well have to see. I mean, the new year starts in, what, 46 days. So its a very short period for insurers to work with state Insurance Commissioners and start issuing plans that they had been intending to cancel. I think it is very likely that under either the president s plan or the House Republican plan that a lot of people are not going to be able to keep plans they like, even though federal law allows them to. And politically, i have to think thats part of the president s strategy here. This allows him to say, well, i made the change that allows you to keep your plan, and you should talk to your state insurance commissioner or to your Health Insurance provider if theyre not selling you the plan that you want. So i think partly they dont want the fix to work too well. Theres a reason that the Insurance Markets have to change in the way that they are changing under obama care. You want people into these new risk pools, a mix of Healthy People and people who are sicker and need more care. So you dont want too many people keeping their existing plans. Im curious as to what you think republicans are going to do now. Because, of course, the president has addressed some of the criticism. Hes moved into the territory that the upton bill was suggesting. Okay. I said something, you said i didnt live up to that. Lets live up to that for a year. Fine. The republican position has always been, whatever the president is for, we are against. So now can they be for the upton bill . Because now theyre being for something that the president is for. I mean, this is sort of the problem when your thesis is were against anything that you are for, eventually youre going to get into a position where youre a bit confused of where you need to go. Yeah, i think were seeing a mixed bag of reactions from republicans. I know senator bob corker said he thought this was a positive step. I do think youll continue to hear republicans say you need a legislative fix, that this is the sort of thing thats supposed to be done through legislation and not through executive action. They want to take votes on this. Thatll be awkward for the president , and they want moves that are more expansive. I think they would like the approach in the upton bill that allows these less regulated plans to continue indefinitely. So i would expect to see votes on this. I also think in some sense this has been an escape hatch for republicans. You have this upton bill in the house. Then you have senator Mary Landrieus bill in the senate. What that bill does is it doesnt just allow insurers to continue plans. It forces them to continue them. It really does try to address the problem of people not being able to keep their health plans. And this is kind of a trap for republicans. What was going to happen is they were going to pass the upton bill. Then maybethe landrieu bill taken up in the senate. I dont think republicans should normally want to vote for a bill that forces Health Insurers to continue to stay in lines of business that held like to exit. Its a very heavyhanded federal government involvement in private city. This allows them to avoid doing something they probably didnt want to do. Because basically their main policy guide star on health care is theyre in favor of whatever the president opposes, they were moving in this direction of demanding a new Health Insurance regulation that the president didnt want. So this may save them from that. Yeah, i mean, i think if youre watching washington from home right now and trying to figure out why this is such a big day in obama care news, youd be forgiven for thinking that we were talking about something that might affect most people under the plan or half the people under the plan or a quarter of the people under the plan. Im not diminishing the people who are affected by this, but this as a way to evaluate obama care, even when we talk about the total numbers of support for obama care, this is about 5 of the Insurance Market. As ive said and will continue to say on this show, its a corner of the market that the president has a record of caring about and most of these republican opponents dont, as a legislative factual matter. I just want to add that as a larger context for the conversation. When we look to the Insurance Market specifically, josh, what do you think about the sort of information or transparency piece here . The idea that youre going to push some of these insurers to really explain to people in this 5 part of the market that they were paying for less because they were getting less, what do you think of that piece of it . In some cases, thats it. One part of what the president is putting forward is that when insurers send these notices saying you may extend for another year, theyll have to give them some information about, you know, what thats going to cost them and what their other options are in the exchanges that may be cheaper. Youre right, that a lot of people are going to find theyre actually better off changing health plans. They may think they like the coverage they have now, but theres a new, better option available to them. Some of them wont reach that conclusion. Were talking about the individual markets, about 5 of the health care market. Some of those people actually their plans arent getting canceled. Some of them already want to change coverage. Theres a substantial fraction of that, a few Million People who are young, Healthy People with moderate to high incomes who really do have a better plan under the old system than theyre going to be able to get under obama care. So theyre like you. Theyre young and healthy. Well, i get Health Insurance from my employer, but but the young and healthy part. Yes, that part i will grant. Im just saying you good look today, bud. I appreciate that. Romantic in here. Go ahead. This isnt just about, you know, plans that were cheap because they were bad. In a lot of cases, you know, if youre young and healthy, you can get a quite Good Health Plan that would cover you if you had High Health Costs because the insurer thinks its unreasonable youre going to. The way we pay for the expansion of coverage and to cover people who are too sick and expensive to cover before is we make people who are young and healthy pay the same premiums as those people. Everyone says its really important we get young and Healthy People to buy in the exchanges. The reason its important is the premiums they pay are going to be way higher than the care they receive. Theyre paying an implicit tax to support this program for other people. So those people, you know, its not a huge slice of the population. Its a few Million People. But they are losing out here. I think it has to annoy them when people basically act like theyre not losing anything, they had junk insurance before and these changes are for their own good. Absolutely right. Josh barro, thank you. Those remarks on the economy are expected at about 3 40. Well bring those to you right here on the cycle. Up next, one of the big reasons the president had to come out today. His own partys none too pleased. Well spin as the cycle rolls on for a busy thursday afternoon. If yand youre talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about trying or adding a biologic. This is humira, adalimumab. This is humira working to help relieve my pain. This is humira helping me through the twists and turns. This is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. Doctors have been prescribing humira for over ten years. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. For many adults, humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. Blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening Heart Failure have occurred. Before starting humira , your doctor should test you for tb. Ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. Tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. You should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. Ask your doctor if humira can work for you. This is humira at work. Were working 24 7 to get it working for the vast majority of americans in a smooth, consistent way. Im not going to walk away from 40 Million People who have the chance to get Health Insurance for the first time. Were just going to keep on chipping away at this until the job is done. Thats president obama earlier today making his public pitch for people to bear with him as the Government Works out the kinks of implementing the Affordable Care act. Right now, Top White House staffers are finishing up their private pitch to democrats on the hill with rumors swirling that before todays remarks, some were on the verge of revolt. The president s proposal also gets out ahead of the gop plan thats due out for a house vote as early as tomorrow and one that nancy pelosi called cleatly disruptive to the insurance polls. Our question, is the president s olive branch enough to calm members of his own party . And how big a problem is this division for the president and the future of obama care . We are spinning. Abby huntsman, you were saying earlier, a lot of division here for democrats. And president obama spoke directly to this, this morning, basically saying theres no doubt that the failure of the launch has impacted democrats and not for the better. Lets take a listen to some of what he had to say. No doubt that our failure to roll out the aca smoothly has put a burden on democrats, whether theyre running or not. Bauz they sto because they st and supported this effort through thick and thin. You know, i feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them. Ive actually never heard the president sound so up front referring to his own party. It seemed like his strategy in his speech this morning was, look, dont blame the democrats. This is all on me. This is my fault. Dont punish them. Dont in any way have this cause anything bad in the Elections Come 2014. I think he met with democrats yesterday on the hill, and its clear theyre upset, that theyre angry, that they felt obama care was essentially going to be a huge advantage for them come the elections. Its now become their achilles heel. Its becoming their biggest weakness. The problem is that is this is really the only agenda they have to stand on. What else is there . They dont have immigration they can talk about. So im assuming the meeting probably was a bit testy yesterday. Then you have republicans who have never been on board with this, and their argument now s look, you cant trust the president , which to me is a little bit frightening when you think about anything getting done from here on out because theyre clearly not going to be willing to work with the president if theyre using this argument that you cant even trust the president any longer. Democrats remain extremely supportive of the aca, and especially gallup showing young folks are extremely supportive of the aca. Thats still a message that will work to democratic audiences. We could definitely message against immigration and what republicans have done to hurt the country and not passing reform on that. But lets stay on the aca. Lets look at members supporting th this landrieu bill, right. Joe manchin, from a red state. Senator pryor, from a red state. Do you notice anything . We see red state democrats who are dealing with the challenge of living and governing in a gerrymandered world where sometimes they have to deal with what the folks on the right want. The only two sort of outliers