Yesterday, blogger Pundit Pete made his way into the the daily White House press briefing to ask Press Secretary Jay Carney about the broken promises of Obamacare and reminded him that the law has never been a popular one. Pete's wife, who he calls Citizen Caryn, lost her previously held health insurance as a result of Obamacare and now their family is paying $3600 more for a new plan.
Advertisement
In order to avoid the security risks associated with the Obamacare exchanges, and find a plan in which she could still keep he doctor of many years, she now pays about double her previous premium.
Naturally, Carney stuck to his script by repeating talking points about "millions" of new people being covered as a result of Obamacare.
PETE: Why won’t he listen to the American people?
MR. CARNEY: You obviously haven’t seen the data because the majority of Americans do not in any poll want it repealed. The majority supports fixing it and improving it, not repealing it. I would ask you to check your data.
Secondly, the President made that pitch. Republicans in Congress fought it tooth and nail. It went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld it. It was the principal argument in a presidential election. The President won reelection.
And again, Republicans are free to make the repeal argument. My point was simply that when you go to individuals and you ask them, do you want quality, affordable health insurance, or do you want the insurance company to tell you that you’re not going to get coverage for that condition you have because the fine print says you can't. In fact, your sister, we’re going to charge her double even though you have identical medical histories because she’s a woman --
PETE: Well, my wife is getting charged double now because she lost her insurance.
MR. CARNEY: Well, again, I don't know the circumstances with your wife. And what I can tell you is that the Affordable Care Act provides quality, affordable health insurance to millions of people. They are -- million are --
PETE: But that's not true. More people have lost their insurance because of the act right now than have been -- didn't have insurance and have signed up. That is a fact.
MR. CARNEY: Okay, well, you’re entitled to your facts, sir.
Recommended
Advertisement
The video embed autoplays, so I won't embed it in this post but you can watch the exchange here.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member