Obama disingenuously says provisions "snuck" into bill would separate patients from their doctors. White House photo, Pete Souza
President then: You can keep your doctor. President now: It wouldn’t happen
While answering questions from House Republicans in Baltimore, the president let this little nugget out of the bag:
The last thing I will say, though — let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. 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, we said from the start that it was going to 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’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.
Just two days before, during his State of the Union Address, President Obama said this:
Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan.
Analysts, including the Congressional Budget Office, have been saying for months that the health care reform bills in Congress would force people out of their current insurance policies, and therefore away from their doctors. But the president kept making that promise. As recently as two days ago.
Now he admits that the bills wouldn’t keep it. Disingenuously.
President Obama says some provisions were “snuck” into the bills that break his promise. But the CBO said back in August and again in December that the Senate bills, specifically, would drop about 10 million from their health insurance plans.
It’s ridiculous for the president to act like the process “snuck” the government into coming between Americans and their doctors. It’s been in the bills from the beginning.
The “joke” last summer was that members hadn’t read the health care bill before voting on it — apparently the president was just as clueless.
Sources:
The White House, Jan. 29, 2010
Remarks by the President at GOP House Issues Conference
The White House, Jan. 27, 2009
Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address
USA Today, Aug. 12, 2009
Obama battles health care ‘chatter’
The Foundry, Aug. 12, 2009
Obamacare Pep Rally Fact Check
The Foundry, Dec. 10, 2009
Reid Bill Forces 10 Million Out of Current Health Care
Congressional Budget Office, Dec. 7, 2009
