You can't make this up

Looking for ways to exempt people from the individual mandate the Obama administration has stumbled upon the idea of using the hardship exemption. What is the hardship? The passage of Obamacare!

The individual mandate no longer applies to people whose plans were canceled: "3. Today, the administration agreed with a group of senators, led by Mark Warner of Virginia, who argued that having your insurance plan canceled counted as "an unexpected natural or human-caused event." For these people, in other words, Obamacare itself is the hardship. You can read HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' full letter here. HHS's formal guidance is here."

You don't have to buy insurance because the law saying that you have to buy insurance cancelled you insurance policy, leaving you without an insurance policy.

Of course, the rub is the word "unexpected." The law was passed almost four years ago. Surely that was enough time to make provisions for the insurance plans that would be cancelled? Ah, but these people believed President Obama when he said that if you liked your insurance policy you could keep it. Period.

So the real hardship is that you were lied to by the President and now the President is trying to help you. I believe the parallels to Otter's "You fucked up, you trusted us," defense is now added Otter's next sentence. "But don't worry, were going to try to help."