Obamacare: ‘I Was Lied To’

‘It’s Scary,’ ‘Really A Panicked Experience’

OBAMA PROMISE: “If you have health insurance and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.” (President Obama, Conference Call With Liberal Bloggers, 7/20/09)

POLITIFACT’s 2013 Lie of the Year: 'If you like your health care plan, you can keep it' (Politifact, 12/12/13)

RHETORIC: ‘If You Like What You Have, You Can Keep It,’ ‘We Guarantee It’

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)

REID: “It not only means making sure you can keep your family's doctor or keep your health care plan if you like it but also that you can afford to do so.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8150, 7/28/09)

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): “Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) made the same promise… ‘Many people say: “I like my health insurance right now. I don’t want to change. I don’t want to go into Medicare or Medicaid. I like what I have. Would you please leave people alone?”’ Durbin said. ‘The answer is yes,’ he added. ‘In fact, we guarantee it. We are going to put in any legislation considered by the House and Senate the protection that you, as an individual, keep the health insurance you have, if that is what you want.’” (“Top Dems Made Same Promises,” The Hill, 10/31/13)

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): “Again, if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it. Let me say this again: If you like what you have, when our legislation is passed and signed by the President, you will be able to keep it.” (Sen. Murray, Congressional Record, S.6400, 6/10/09)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): “Our bill says if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it…” (Sen. Brown, Congressional Record, S.12612, 12/7/09)

SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): “If you like the insurance you have, you can choose to keep it.” (Sen. Reed, Town Hall Event, 6/25/09)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): “If you have job-based health insurance you like, you can keep it.” (Sen. Coons, “FAQ For Individuals And Families,” Accessed 10/31/13)

REALITY: ‘Five Million Cancellations,’ ‘I’m Infuriated Because I Was Lied To’

2013 Flashback: “In the market for individually-purchased health insurance, more than 4.8 million Americans have received notices that their preexisting plans are soon to be illegal, and will be cancelled.” (“The Obamacare Exchange Scorecard: Around 100,000 Enrollees And Five Million Cancellations,” Forbes, 11/12/13)

KY Woman: “Our President lied to us. Not only are we going to lose our insurance but when go to a different policy-we have to pay more. We will never be able to retire-we are 58 & 56 years old-we will have to work the rest of our [lives] just to pay for our insurance.” (Sen. McConnell, Constituent Mail)

CA Woman: ‘The health plan she’s paid for through the Affordable Care Act keeps sending her to doctors who say they can’t treat her because they won’t take her insurance’ REPORTER: “Beth Kramer says she’s running out of options.” PHONE: “The expected wait time is approximately one hour.” REPORTER: “And out of time. The disabled mother of two says she’s out of medication for an auto-immune disease, she’s run out of antibiotics for a painful internal infection, and the health plan she’s paid for through the Affordable Care Act keeps sending her to doctors who say they can’t treat her because they won’t take her insurance.” KRAMER: “I’m out of medication. I’m sitting here with an infection that I’m out of antibiotics [for] and symptoms are coming back and I have no idea when I can go to a doctor or where.” REPORTER: “Kramer signed up for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act through Covered California…” (KCBS-CA, 1/22/14)

CA Resident: “All we've been hearing the last three years is if you like your policy you can keep it… I’m infuriated because I was lied to.” (“Some Health Insurance Gets Pricier As Obamacare Rolls Out,” Los Angeles Times, 10/26/13)

NY Woman: Insurance plan canceled under Obamacare, ‘I’m dead in the dirt, I can’t do anything. I can’t go to the doctor.’ REPORTER: “Many people in the Rochester area lost their healthcare insurance January 1. They’re among the millions across the country who saw their plans canceled under the Affordable Care Act. Nancy Miller is one of them. The self-employed hairdresser says she began doing research in September to make sure she’d be covered this year, but she then learned the health plan that she’d had for years was no longer available. She says other options were too expensive. Miller has some health issues that require medication, treatments and tests – treatments she’s delayed because of the lack of insurance.” MILLER: “I’m not going to lose my house because I don’t have health insurance and I need medical assistance, so I’m dead in the dirt, I can’t do anything. I can’t go to the doctor, I can’t have my tests run, I can’t go for an MRI.” (YNN-NY, 1/7/14)

KY Man: “Dentist Aaron McLemore of Louisville, Ky... The 31-year-old's current policy is being canceled. A new policy from the exchange will more than double his monthly premium and nearly double his yearly out-of-pocket maximum.” (“How The Affordable Care Act Pays For Insurance Subsidies,” NPR, 11/7/13)

AL Woman: ‘It’s scary. … oh no, I didn’t get to get my insurance plan … it went up!’ Casey Heaps: ‘This is not affordable at all, this is a very unaffordable care act’ Reporter: ‘That’s Gainesville medial assistant Casey Heaps.’ Heaps: ‘I don’t know what this world’s coming to. It’s scary. … oh no, I didn’t get to get my insurance plan I had. I had the one I liked, the one that worked for me, the one I could afford, but no I didn’t get to keep it, it went up!’ (WAAY-AL, 11/26/13)

CA Woman: “57 year old stay-at-home mom; insurance cancelled Dec. 31; new plan 59.6% higher premiums, $2,000 higher deductible; higher co-pay; at least $2466.24 more than last year.” (“Obamacare's Harmful Impact,” GOP.gov, 12/11/13)

CA Woman: “‘So, in a nutshell,’ Holroyd said in an e-mail, ‘we are now, once again, being forced into a lower coverage plan, for more money.’ …her situation has been miserable. ‘I'm losing faith in our administration.’” (“Four Stories: After Obamacare 'Fix,' Many Are Still Left Out,” CNN, 12/11/13)

“Holroyd supported the Affordable Care Act when it was passed in 2009. ... Everything changed in October, when Holroyd was notified by her insurer that her plan could not be renewed in 2014. The comparable plans offered to Holroyd featured a 29% increase in premiums and higher co-pays, as well as significantly higher prescription costs. … ‘we had no idea that the premiums were going to be what they are.’” (“Four Stories: After Obamacare 'Fix,' Many Are Still Left Out,” CNN, 12/11/13)

IL Family: ‘Washington, you’re killing us out here’ “IL family of 4. Both parents & a 23 yr. old canceled. We’re scrambling to replace coverage by Jan. 1st at a 80% increase in premiums. Washington, you’re killing us out here.” (“YOUR STORIES: Insurance Plans Cancelled Due to Obamacare,” Heritage.org, 10/30/13)

NC Woman: “It’s been aggravating to have to see the policy that you were perfectly happy with doesn’t exist anymore and you can’t keep it.” Reporter: “For the past three years, Ruth-Anne Grimes says the health insurance plan that cost her $381 a month served her well. Then this letter…” Grimes: “It says you’ll no longer – the plan will no longer be offered in 2014.” Reporter: “Because it does not meet the qualifications of the Affordable Care Act. But there’s another plan available: for $562 a month.” … Grimes: “It’s been aggravating to have to see the policy that you were perfectly happy with doesn’t exist anymore and you can’t keep it, you have to go on another plan. … the Affordable Care Act did not make it very affordable for me.” (WRAL-NC, 11/7/13)

‘I Lost Coverage With Doctors In My Area. It's Not Right And It's Not Fair’

Hundreds In OH: ‘Hundreds of people in the Mahoning Valley can no longer go to their trusted doctors… the Affordable Care Act is to blame’ ANCHOR: “With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, some area medical facilities saying, they're no longer able to use some insurance companies.” … REPORTER: “Hundreds of people in the Mahoning Valley can no longer go to their trusted doctors, and local officials say the Affordable Care Act is to blame.” … DOCTOR: “Now they’re facing the choice of switching to another doctor. They’re really scared. Really scared.” (WKBN-OH, 1/21/14)

AZ Man: “My son is 1-1/2 and he has a preexisting condition. It's a heart defect. My wife and I received a letter this week that his cardiologist group is getting dropped from our health care provider on November 1^st… being forced upon them by Obamacare.” (“Victim of Obamacare Loses His Doctor,” The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/31/13)

KY Woman: I’ve ‘had really a panicked experience lately trying to figure out how my 10-year-old son can continue with his specialists’ “Rebecca Stewart had a chance to take her concerns about Obamacare directly to the top. … ‘I'm probably not the only one who has had really a panicked experience lately trying to figure out how my 10-year-old son can continue with his specialists,’ Stewart said. ‘I know I can't keep my plan, which I liked, but as I'm trying to decide what to do going forward, I've spent weeks, with days on the phone getting confidently delivered wrong answers, conflicting information, it's becoming quite obvious to me a lot of agencies, almost everyone I talk to, is having a lot of trouble figuring out the new rules.’” (“Covington Mother Grills Obama On Health Care,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, 2/4/14)

MA Woman: ‘I lost coverage with doctors in my area. It's not right and it's not fair…The current federal government and their policies are detrimental to the health of my business and my family’ “Introducing Tisei was Erin Calvo Bacci, a Reading chocolatier and small business owner. Originally crippled by the cost of healthcare, Calvo Bacci obtained a plan with $80 monthly premiums for her family of five under the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law. When the Affordable Care Act went into effect last year, her family was switched to a different plan with the same cost, but different doctors. ‘I lost coverage with doctors in my area. It's not right and it's not fair,’ Calvo Bacci said. ‘The current federal government and their policies are detrimental to the health of my business and my family.’” ("Tisei Renews Congressional Battle,” Wicked Local News [MA], 1/23/14)

NY Senior: ‘Obama had said I could keep my doctor. Now they’re doing away with my doctor. They kicked him out! After 20 years, that’s not right.’ “ObamaCare is making seniors sick. Elderly New Yorkers are in a panic after getting notices that insurance companies are booting their doctors from the Medicare Advantage program as a result of the shifting medical landscape under ObamaCare… [Dr. Jonathan] Leibowitz’s patients are furious. Alfred Gargiulio, who has cerebral palsy with a seizure disorder, has been seeing Leibowitz since 1993. ‘Obama had said I could keep my doctor. Now they’re doing away with my doctor. They kicked him out! After 20 years, that’s not right. We love Dr. Leibowitz,’ said Gargiulio.” (“Elderly Patients Sick Over Losing Doctors Under Obamacare,” New York Post, 10/25/13)

FL Senior: “The AARP managed care network [George Smith] had relied on for years will drop all eight of his and his wife's doctors as of Jan. 1. ‘I couldn't believe it. I have my house and car and everything insured through AARP,’ said Smith, 73. ‘I thought, “They are not going to drop me. I've been a member for years.”’ … Patients have received letters telling them to seek new physicians if they want to stay on the plan. Doctors … have learned that AARP plans will stop paying for their services next year.” (“Patients Scramble After AARP Medicare Advantage Plans Drop Providers,” Tampa Bay Times, 10/21/13)

IL Woman: “The cost /threat of Obamacare has cost our family more than $1000 in increased cost of the above listed insurances. I had to go to the doctor last month and paid $725 out of pocket expenses because my doctor no longer accepts our insurance.” (“Obamacare's Harmful Impact,” GOP.gov, 12/11/13)

NM Resident: “I am one of the previously happy insured who is going to lose my existing policy at the end of the year, lose my primary care physician and pay substantially more for comparable coverage.” (“Losing Policy, Longtime Doctor, Cancer Specialists,” Albuquerque Journal, 11/22/13)

SC Woman: Doctor ‘absolutely would not take’ Obamacare insurance Host: “Have you applied for insurance under the [Patient Protection and] Affordable Care Act? Your local provider may not accept your coverage.” … Lisa Bentley-Long: “I do not know what I’m going to do. I really don’t.” … Reporter: “Being self-employed she jumped at the change to sign up for an insurance plan on the healthcare.gov marketplace, a website created under the recent Affordable Care Act. She said she enrolled in the consumer’s choice plan. According to the website she qualified for it and it was available in the Spartanburg County area. But she says that her doctor and a local county hospital wouldn’t accept the plan.” Long: “They absolutely would not take it, and there are several other doctors in Spartanburg that are the same way.” (WSPA-SC, 2/5/14)

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues: Obamacare, Health Care

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