Skip to content

Republicans Say Obama Broke Health Care Promise

Updated: June 16, 11:27 a.m.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday continued their assault on the new health care law, charging that President Barack Obama broke his promise that Americans who want to keep their current insurance coverage will be able to do so.

Although the Obama administration has moved this week to reassure the public that they will be able to maintain their current health insurance policies, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), along with Republican Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), who are both doctors, argued otherwise, saying new regulations being written by the Department of Health and Human Services make it clear that that is not the case.

“With every passing day, another one of the president’s promises on the new health care law bites the dust,” Hatch told reporters during a morning news conference on Capitol Hill.

The Republican Senators chose Tuesday for their news conference purposely, as it is the one-year anniversary of a speech that Obama delivered to the American Medical Association in which he vowed that health care reform would not infringe on people’s ability to maintain the health insurance coverage that they had prior to the passage of the legislation.

Throughout the yearlong health care debate, Republicans contended that the administration would not be able to keep this particular promise, among others.

“What we’re seeing come to fruition is exactly what we predicted would happen with this bill,” Coburn said.

However, Democrats remain adamant that the regulations being written by HHS as a part of the new law’s implementation will allow people who like their current health care plans to keep them.

“This rule allows individuals and families to keep their existing plans if they like them, and protects consumers with important benefits we included in the new health reform law,” Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a statement.

Recent Stories

Justice Department expands where it will monitor on Election Day

GOP centers election concerns on noncitizen voting, but it’s rare

Boozman, Klobuchar lined up to follow Stabenow on Agriculture

Awkward abound: Joe Biden and the lame-duck countdown

Ratings changes: What we do and don’t know about the fight for Congress

Trump advocates ‘nine barrels shooting at’ Liz Cheney