President Caught Lying About Obamacare, Conservatives Allege
Distracted momentarily from Benghazi, conservative White House critics delighted this week in catching President Barack Obama in a lie—and one concerning the Affordable Care Act, no less.
On Monday, Obama spoke in Washington, D.C., to a couple hundred members of the Organizing for Action, the non-profit organization formed of the remnants—people and money—from the president’s campaign for office. In a case of video gotcha, conservative media played clips of Obama’s remarks Monday denying he never promised the new healthcare law wouldn’t cost some Americans their doctors and health insurance plans, albeit a small minority.
The denial juxtaposes with 29 recorded statements from the president promising Americans that “if you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan, period.”
On Monday, Obama told supporters, “What we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed.”
The campaign promises elide this qualification, however, which Obama now justifies as a sacrifice to a higher goal. “If we had allowed these old plans [to continue]… then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure that Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin.”
Obama said some richer Americans would now pay higher insurance premiums, while the national risk pool in healthcare insurance benefited. “So the bottom line is, is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody,” he said Monday.
Meanwhile, health insurers continued to send cancellation notices to holders of individual and group coverage policies, some of whom will be compelled to purchase more expensive policies. As allowed by law, some insurers have decided to cancel policies sold after the Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010, offering new policies complying with new requirements going into effect on Jan. 1.
Given the intricacies of a federal law with more than 11.5 million words, most Americans remain confused about promises made during the campaign, and during the send-up of the bill in an extreme parliamentarian battle between Democrats and Republicans.
Most Americans dropped by their insurers will benefit, analysts say, with more comprehensive policies at comparable cost, with federal subsidies for those who qualify.
The Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, requires health insurers to cover 10 core benefits, including prescription drugs, mental health treatment once stigmatized as unnecessary and maternity care, among others. Insurers are also forbidden from dropping beneficiaries for pre-existing conditions.
During his speech Monday, Obama sought to reassure a rattled public that most would be able to buy replace dropped coverage with improved policies at similar costs. “I realize that can be scary for people if they just get some [cancellation] notice like that… we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting them the right information,” he said.