Obamacre "Fix" Has No Force of Law Behind It

President Barack Obama's so-called "fix" to the problem of Americans losing their current health insurance is more like a political stunt than an actual fix to the problem.

Obama's Thursday speech was an attempt to address the controversy over his broken promise: If you like your current health care plan you can keep it, he has said repeatedly. Insurance companies, though, have been sending cancellation notices to millions of Americans whose policies do not comply with the Affordable Care Act's, or Obamacare's, coverage mandates.

Instead of canceling those plans, Obama said, insurance companies can extend those plans through 2014, thus giving another year before Obama's promise will be broken.

There is one problem, though, with Obama's "fix" – he does not have the authority to extend any insurance plan that does not comply with current law, and current law is the ACA.

Under the U.S. Constitution, laws are made by Congress, not the president. Obama's speech was only, well, a speech. There was no force of law behind it. There is no executive order directing insurance companies or state insurance commissioners to reissue canceled plans for a year. (Obama could not do that via executive order anyway.)

Essentially, Obama is asking the insurance companies to break the law – more specifically, the law popularly known as "Obamacare." The insurance companies are, therefore, left with a choice – follow the law or follow Obama.