Obama blames ‘bad apple’ insurers for canceled coverage

By Roberta Rampton and David Morgan BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that "bad apple" insurance companies, not his signature healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act, Obama blamed private insurers for a separate problem that has critics questioning his honesty. The president has repeatedly promised that people who are happy with their health plans would not have to change coverage because of the law, known as Obamacare. But the termination of individual policies has given his Republican opponents additional ammunition to criticize the program they have tried to stop since its inception in Obama's first term.