You Can Keep Your Insurance if you Like IT?

According to President Barack Obama: "If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period."
This is a pure distortion if not outright falsehood. Under Section 59(B)(a) of HR3200 and Section 151 of the bill that passed out of a Senate committee, every American would be required to buy health insurance. And the insurance must meet certain government-defined standards. For example, under Section 122(b) of the House bill, all plans must cover hospitalization; outpatient hospital and clinic services; services by physicians and other health professionals, as well as supplies and equipment incidental to their services; prescription drugs, rehabilitation services, mental health and substance-abuse treatment; preventive services and other care including
dental, vision, and hearing services for children under age 21. The bill also establishes a Committee to develop additional minimum benefit requirements. If your current health insurance doesn't meet all those requirements, you won't immediately be forced to drop your insurance for a government-specified plan but you would be required to switch if you lose your current insurance. Perhaps more importantly, for those who get insurance through work, those plans would all have to satisfy the government's benefit requirements within five years. With the increased costs, why wouldn't your employer simply dump you into the government-run "public option." As many as 89.5 million workers will lose their current employer-provided plan and be forced into government-run insurance. This is not allowing people to “keep your insurance plan if you like it.”
Seniors, will also lose their current coverage, at least the 10 million seniors currently participating in the Medicare advantage program. The House bill cuts payments to the Medicare Advantage program by roughly $156.3 billion over 10 years.