House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats were well aware some Americans would not be able to keep their current health insurance plans due to Obamacare, even as President Barack Obama promised the opposite.
“We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would be required to get more extensive coverage,” Hoyer said, answering a question from National Review.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, walks out of the West Wing with, from left, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., to speak to reporters after their meeting with President Barack Obama regarding the partial government shutdown and looming debt default outside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
NBC News reported on Monday that 50 to 75 percent of consumers who have individual health care plans can expect to receive a cancellation letter from their insurance provider. Obama was still promising "if [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance" in 2012.
However, Hoyer argued that comments made by Obama and other Democrats were not "misleading," but the message "should have been caveated with -- 'assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.'"
Echoing a Democratic talking point, Hoyer also said the people who are losing their insurance plans are mostly in the individual market, which is a small portion of the overall insurance market.
(H/T: BuzzFeed)
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