Video: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" - Barack Obama
NewsBusters: To counter accusations that the President lied when he repeatedly told Americans they can keep their health insurance plans if they liked them, the administration has claimed that he was referring to the millions of people covered by their employers.
An article from Forbes Thursday thoroughly refutes this claiming that Obama officials back in 2010 predicted that 93 million Americans would have their plans cancelled as a result of ObamaCare including a vast amount of those with employer-sponsored plans:
If you read the Affordable Care Act when it was passed, you knew that it was dishonest for President Obama to claim that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” as he did—and continues to do—on countless occasions. And we now know that the administration knew this all along. It turns out that in an obscure report buried in a June 2010 edition of the Federal Register, administration officials predicted massive disruption of the private insurance market. [...]
[T]he administration’s commentary in the Federal Register did not only refer to the individual market, but also the market for employer-sponsored health insurance.
Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a “grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection.
“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34552. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and get canceled. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.
As we found out from Lisa Myers' report Monday, the administration predicted that between 47 and 60 percent of individually-purchased policies would be cancelled under ObamaCare.
Forbes did the math to calculate a total:
51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans.
What this means is that not only did Obama lie when he repeatedly told Americans that they can keep their plans if they like them, he also lied in Boston on Wednesday when he said he was referring to the majority of Americans coverered by their employers.
Will media report this?
Stay tuned?
Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters - (HT Twitchy)
Sarah Palin - Facebook: President Obama flew in to Boston yesterday to deliver another “ShamWow”-style infomercial for Obamacare, and it went about as well as his entourage’s snarled traffic debacle in Beantown.
As millions of Americans are being kicked off their desired insurance plans and seeing their premiums skyrocket, the President had a lot of 'splaining to do today. For starters we anticipated a Presidential apology for lying to Americans repeatedly when he promised things like, “If you like your current health care plan, you can keep it.” Make no mistake, he knew he was lying when he said that. And make no further mistake, after five years of false Obama claims, no one should actually expect contrition on this administration’s part.
Bloomberg reports that in June of 2010, the administration knew millions would be kicked off existing healthcare plans due to Obamacare; but President Obama continued to knowingly deceive the American people with repeated claims that if we liked our current plan we could keep it.
So, finally busted, did the President apologize? Was remorse and sympathy shown for Americans who now can’t afford health insurance thanks to Obamacare? Nope. He instead informed us that Americans who receive cancellation notices have been on “substandard” plans supplied by “bad apple” insurers. That’s right. Obama didn’t lie to you when he said, “if you like your plan, you can keep it.” Why? Because, you sillies, you DIDN’T REALLY like the plan you chose for yourselves! No arguing. Barack Obama knows best and he’ll tell you whether you actually liked your insurance plan or not. If you’re an elderly bachelor, your old plan was clearly “substandard” because it didn’t offer maternity care. What’s that you say? You don’t need maternity care? Well, according to the President today, he says you do, and any insurance plan that doesn’t offer it is a “junk” plan provided by a “bad apple” insurer.
But don’t worry, the President also promised that only “rich” people making $250,000 or more will see their premium costs rise. This lie is so appalling and so easily debunked that the brazenness with which he made it is simply breathtaking. But who will hold him accountable for it? Media, you know I love you... so let me help you save your hide with the American public by suggesting you fact-check that.
Despite the Obamacare rollout disaster and the broken government website (which HHS Secretary Sebelius admitted is a “debacle” in her testimony before Congress today), the President gleefully highlighted the few people signing up for Obamacare as indicative of his socialized medicine’s “success.” He neglected to mention that the government is forcing Americans to sign up for his program or pay fines that will increase each year we fail to do so.
For sheer chutzpah, the President closed his speech by praising America’s “rugged individualism.” Because nothing says “rugged individualism” like heavy-handed big government forcing individuals to buy a product they don’t want and arrogantly telling them they didn’t really like the product they wisely chose for themselves and could afford.
Thanks for the infomercial, Mr. President. I don’t know anyone who wants your “ShamWow” product, but the IRS will make sure we call that toll free number or go online to order it right now…. well, just as soon as your impossibly broken $600 million website is fixed and your phones lines aren’t busy.
Happy with this, America? Make your voices heard. 2014 is just around the corner.
Video: Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Obama could take away your right to buy cheap shoes
10/31/13 - Rep. Marsh Blackburn (R-TN) warned on Thursday that President Barack Obama could soon take away the freedom to purchase cheap shoes if his health care reform law was allowed to stand. At a House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, the Tennessee Republican had grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius because the Affordable Care Act had forced insurers to upgrade some policies that did not meet new minimum government standards.
"Some people like to drive a Ford, not a Ferrari," Blackburn had quipped at the hearing. "And some people like to drink out of a red Solo cup, not a crystal stem. You're taking away their choice." In an appearance on the Fox News Channel on Thursday, host Martha MacCallum concluded that the point about the Solo cup was the "bigger picture" about the health care law.
"I will always go to the mat and fight for freedom, free people, free markets," Blackburn insisted. "And I think for the federal government to come in and take away the choice that people have had in the health care market and say, 'Hey, we don't like what you've been buying, we're going to make you buy this.'"
"What's the next thing going to be? You can't buy that Solo cup? You can't buy an inexpensive blouse? You can't buy a pair of shoes that cost less than another pair?"
She added: "So do they think that the federal government is going to become the determiner of the cost and set prices of everything that you can buy at a quality that they say is worthy? Come on! This is absolutely ridiculous. I am not going to sit here and let them get by with this."
- Sarah Palin - Facebook
P.S. Take a look at this article by Fox’s Eric Bolling: Why the Healthcare.gov website failure matters big-time
Excerpt: As Eric asks, “If they can’t get a basic website up and running in three years… How on God’s green Earth are they going to administer health care to 300 million Americans? So, with billions upon billions of health related communications clearing through the government medicine portal annually, our very health will be hanging in the balance…Therefore, you must conclude: The Obama administration has our lives in their hands… Ask yourself… Do you trust President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Kathleen Sebelius and Jay Carney with your life? I certainly do not! Video: Glenn Beck: Day 30 And Heathcare.gov Still Isn't Working…
The Lies Continue On ObamaCare
Sebelius, ObamaCare and More Spin…
Sharyl Attkisson told on Obamacare enrollment figures: ‘There aren’t any’
