Tuesday on CNN’s “Wolf,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D- FL.) said the reported large premium increases many Americans are getting on their Affordable Care Act insurance plans are just “kinks” that need to be “ironed out.”
Wasserman Schultz said, “You know, I think that voters when they go to the polls and make a decision about who they want to vote for for president are going to vote for Hillary Clinton, because they know that she has been focused on making sure that we can continue to add more people who have health care insurance. We have 20 million people who now have health insurance that didn’t before. When it comes to the rate increases, we have the slowest rate of health insurance costs in 50 years, since the passage of Obamacare. Look, it’s also important to note, that insurance premiums went up double digits every year before Obamacare.”
“But now because of the tax credits available to 91 percent of Floridians and 84 percent of uninsured and previously uninsured Americans nationwide, most of these folks are able to pay $100 or less in their monthly premium and so while there are costs that have continued to go up, it’s the slowest rate increase in 50 years and as for the kinks that need ironed out, we need to sit down together, like Hillary Clinton has said over and over, with Republicans across the table and iron out those kinks,” she continued. “That’s what we are committed to do to continue with a plan that has given 20 million people insurance and people like me, a breast cancer survivor, not to have to worry about dropped coverage like we had to before.”
She added, “We’re in a transition year, and as I said, you have 91 percent of Americans, previously uninsured Americans in Florida eligible for a tax credit, which brings those costs down. Those numbers are really an anomaly. It’s four or five states where the number of insurance options have narrowed. So premiums have increased, but we’re going to be able to make sure that if we just sit down together and iron out the kinks that have occurred with Obamacare. This was significant reform that brought more health care insurance, for example, to young adults who can now stay on their parents insurance until they’re 26 years old. If we go Donald Trump and Republicans way, they’ve forced us in Congress to vote more than 60 times to fully repeal it, just get rid of it and leave people with no health insurance.”
(h/t WFB)
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.