Everybody act surprised, a continuing series

Time magazine: "How health care reform will affect existing plans"

"If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan."

Throughout the long health care reform debate, that promise from President Obama was one of the few constants, made to reassure the bulk of Americans who already have insurance that the sweeping legislation would not have a downside. Just Tuesday, Obama tried to counter critics who say the new law contains a slew of unintended consequences. Announcing a fresh set of newinsurance rules, he called the regulations "a true patients' bill of rights" and insisted that they are "not punitive."

But now that regulations about existing employer-sponsored plans have been issued, it's becoming clear that many of the 160 million Americans with job-based coverage will not, in fact, be able to keep what they currently have.

In Orwellian fashion, the new health care reform bill is called "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." I guess it's an "act" after all.