“Stray Cats and Dogs … Some of the Provisions That Got Snuck In Might Have Violated That Pledge”

Obama’s “stunning admission” runs from the beginning of this video to about 50 seconds in.  The video was uploaded in January 2010.  (The date of his admission is unknown.  Emphasis added to quotes.)

If you look at the package that we’ve presented–and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating–for example, for example, we said from the start that it was gonna be important for us to be consistent in saying to people:

“If you can have your, if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it.”

That you are not gonna have anybody getting between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated this pledge and so we were, we’re in the process of scrubbing this and making sure that it’s tight …

Consider this story from December 2009, which warns that Obamacare

Endangers Americans Quality of Care: President Obama used to promise that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” But as the CBO confirmed this month 10 million Americans will be forced out of their current health insurance plan should Obamacare become law.

Even worse, CMMS has reported that Obamacare’s $493 billion in Medicare cuts could force as many as one-in-five health care providers into insolvency thus forcing them out of the Medicare program.

The problem is that Obama didn’t just “used to say” this. He kept on saying it, even after he knew it wasn’t true. On June 28, 2012, Obama said:

First, if you’re one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance — this law will only make it more secure and more affordable. 

Here’s some truth:

… One might excuse the president for making an aspirational pledge as the health-care bill was being drafted, but it turns out he kept saying it after the bill was signed into law. By that point, there should have been no question about the potential impact of the law on insurance plans, especially in the individual market.

As we have noted, a key part of the law is forcing insurers to offer an “essential health benefits” package, providing coverage in 10 categories. …

The law did allow “grandfathered” plans — for people who had obtained their insurance before the law was signed on March 23, 2010 — to escape this requirement and some other aspects of the law. But the regulations written by HHS while implementing the law set some tough guidelines, so that if an insurance company makes changes to a plan’s benefits or how much members pay through premiums, copays or deductibles, then a person’s plan likely loses that status. …

In the individual insurance market, few plans were expected to meet the “grandfathered” requirements, which is why many people are now receiving notices that their old plan is terminated and they need to sign up for different coverage. Again, this should be no surprise. As HHS noted in a footnote of a report earlier this year:

“We note that, as the Affordable Care Act is implemented, we expect grandfathered coverage to diminish, particularly in the individual market.” …

The administration is defending this pledge with a rather slim reed — that there is nothing in the law that makes insurance companies force people out of plans they were enrolled in before the law passed. That explanation conveniently ignores the regulations written by the administration to implement the law. …

The Washington  Post gave Obama four Pinocchios for this deliberate whopper.

Of note, and something which the mainstream media avoid, is that any insurance policy that resulted from collective bargaining is automatically protected by the Obamacare law (not HHS policies).  That means that unions, which uniformly support Obama, got special protection in the law, and yet you did not.  In fact, HHS deliberately created policies that would ensure that you would lose your formerly grandfathered policy:

… Union plans were “grandfathered” with none of those fine print tricks and exceptions [Sec. 1251(d)].

The law also left open the possibility that the president could impose additional requirements on grandfathered plans (except union plans). Two months after Obamacare was passed, the IRS, Department of Labor, and Department of Health and Human Services — all reporting to the president — churned out hundreds of additional rules to make it even harder for grandfathered plans to survive.

The rule makers knew they were turning the president’s promise into a flim flam. They estimated that up to 69% of individual plans and 89% of small group plans would be cancelled by the end of 2013 as a result of their rules. (Federal Register, June 14, 2010.)

The president understood that Americans don’t want socialized medicine or big government poking into their healthcare. So when he campaigned to pass Obamacare, he told the public what it wanted to hear: that his plan would help the uninsured and leave everyone else alone. After all, 85% of Americans had insurance, and most were happy with it. …

As Rush Limbaugh said today, if Obama’s administration can use policy to create this problem for millions of people, then they can as easily remove these impediments and make sure that everyone can keep his or her policy.

So why isn’t this president keeping his pledge by changing the policies to remove the “stray cats and dogs” and those “provisions that got snuck in” to his signature law?

Because he knew and this was all done by design, with his knowledge aforethought.  He lied. It’s as simple as that.

Woof! Let’s dump this dog of a law.

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