Roll Call -- President Barack Obama heard an earful at the White House Wednesday from Senate Democrats running for re-election next year who are fuming about the Affordable Care Act’s rocky rollout.
During a two-hour meeting that was not on the president’s public schedule, the president met with 15 Senate Democrats facing the voters next year, as well as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska issued a release after the meeting torching the administration.
“It is simply unacceptable for Alaskans to bear the brunt of the Administration’s mismanagement of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and that is the message U.S. Senator Mark Begich delivered to President Obama today,” his office said in a statement blasted to reporters.[...]
Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado said he let the president know just how upset he is about the troubled health care law. He sent out a release saying that he had pressed the administration to extend the enrollment period due to the problems with HealthCare.gov, ensure that the data on the website is secure and make other modifications.
“The rollout of HealthCare.gov has not been smooth — to say the least — and I shared the concerns of Coloradans directly with the president,” Udall said in the statement. “Consumers should have the time they need to shop for a plan and enroll after the widespread problems with the website are fixed. I urged the president again to extend the enrollment period to give consumers enough time to make an informed decision about their family’s health insurance options. I also told the president that, for the Affordable Care Act to succeed, consumers need to be confident their personal information is secure. We need to do everything in our power to protect the online marketplace from hackers and cyberattacks.”
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Blog author's comments - The Senators voted for it but are now concerned about how their constituents will vote. They are worried about their jobs. What the Democrat Senators who are up for reelection in 2014 would like is if the Obama administration decided to move the Individual Mandate for Obamacare back until 2015. But this will not happen…the more people they have enrolled makes it that much more difficult for anyone to take it away.
The ACA also needs to enroll as many people as possible so they are able to help fund their program. And it is their program...not one Republican voted for the bill. They know this fiasco with the website, the prices of the Obamacare insurance plans, the high deductibles, along with Obama telling the American people “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period” numerous times does not bode well for them. And news broke last week that the administration knew in 2010 that millions of Americans would lose their coverage.
These are some of the items they are worried about. But by concentrating on the website, they think they can fool enough voters into thinking they actually care, while not having to say they don't have a problem with Americans losing their current policies or their doctors.
