President Barack Obama knew some Americans would lose their health insurance due to the implementation of Obamacare, but he still kept repeating a promise he didn’t intend to keep, according to House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).
The Congresswoman, joined by Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Doug Collins (R-Ga.), hosted a conference call on Obamacare on Thursday. The three argued that Obama’s signature healthcare law isn’t working — and that his press conference earlier in the day was simply him giving in to pressure from all sides.
“The President knew for years that the provisions within the law, that the way he intended to write and to implement this law would not allow everyone to keep their health insurance,” she said. “And yet he continued to repeat a promise that he did not intend to keep.”
The President’s announcement on Thursday that insurers no longer have to cancel plans through 2014 due to Obamacare was simply the result of pressure put on him, McMorris Rodgers said. Collins said the POTUS was worried not regaining the House of Representatives, as well as losing the Senate.
Wenstrup argued that Obamacare was “rammed down our throats.” He said Obama and his administration have never run a business and don’t understand how to do so. The three Representatives said the law was failed and called for a repeal.
“Clearly it is hurting many more than it is helping,” McMorris Rodgers said.
She challenged the President to keep his promise to the public.
“He didn’t say if he liked your health insurance plan you’d be able to keep it,” she noted. “He said if you liked your health insurance plan you’d be able to keep it.”
Unfortunately for Republicans, the President isn’t caving entirely yet.
On Friday, the House will vote on H.R. 3350, “Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.” The GOP Representatives said the legislation would make good on the President’s promise — but the POTUS promised to veto the bill, according to a White House statement sent out late Thursday.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), “allows providers to continue to offer in 2014 those health insurance plans in effect in the individual market as of January 1, 2013.”
