Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said that “one of the biggest misconceptions” about Obamacare is that it was to provide coverage for the uninsured.
Burwell explained during a CNN interview Wednesday the benefits people with employer-based insurance have gained under Obamacare, to which host Alisyn Camerota interrupted to say “the selling of Obamacare to the American public is not for people who were covered by their employers because we all have insurance. This was for the uninsured.”
“I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was about three fundamental things. Access, affordability and it was about everybody, not just the uninsured,” Burwell responded.
After Camerota asked whether the increases mean Obama broke his promise that premiums would go down under the plan, Burwell responded that the country is better off with the landmark healthcare reform and said that the increases will be offset by insurance subsidies.
“I think what’s important is to focus on where we were before. For so many of those people in the marketplace, they had no coverage at all. They had no alternative at all,” Burwell said.
