Rep. Blackburn: Obamacare Delays Open Door to Repeal

By    |   Monday, 17 March 2014 06:48 PM EDT ET

The ongoing series of Obamacare delays means there is a greater chance of either repealing or curtailing the healthcare reform law, says Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

"Eventually, all of this is going to collapse around them, but they are just enacting so much pain on the American people as we get to that. Take a look at what has happened — you've got about 25 or 26 delays that they have executed through executive order.

"They don't have the authority to do that. That's why we took the actions we did last week with the Enforce Act and a couple of other pieces of legislation, to let us go after the administration when they overstep their bounds," she told Newsmax TV's John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" Monday.

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"Another thing that is happening is with the insurance companies. When you look at the actuarial work that has to be done on the policies and the universe of individuals insured … you don't have enough people in the pool, you don't have enough of the right breakout.

"They needed young, healthy individuals to choose to pay more, to pay for those that were sick or had the ability to pay less, and it is just not happening. So because of that, those policies are just going to fold around them."

Blackburn has represented Tennessee's 7th Congressional District since 2003. She has served on the Subcommittee on Health Care, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, the Republican Study Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The congresswoman said she thinks the Medicare Advantage cuts that are coming about as a result of Obamacare will have the biggest impact on the November elections.

"People are going to find out about the increase in their premiums in September and October of this year, and what is happening as people are signed up for Medicare Advantage this past year is they got their information from their Medicare Advantage plans or their supplement plan. They saw that they were getting less benefits and paying more," she explained.

"People have already had to prepay this Medicare because the money has come out of their paycheck. The federal government has the first right of refusal on those paychecks, and they are going, 'No, wait a minute, you might want to throw me in there with everybody that had to go sign up with Obamacare, you might want to throw me in the Medicaid, but I have already paid for this; you took my money on the front end, you have a contract with me, you're going to provide what I signed up for, not what you have as convenient to provide.' And that is what they are doing for seniors."

Blackburn also pointed out the problem with robbing Medicare to pay for Obamacare is going to hit especially hard because the majority of people who vote are usually older.

"They're the most expensive to insure through Obamacare and that's not even choosing a platinum plan. That's just choosing the mid-tier plan. We have people who have seen their premiums go up as much as 500 percent because they fall into that 55-and-above demographic.

"And then they're talking to friends and spouses who are in the Medicare program and they're finding out they're having to pay high premiums and they're going, 'Wait a minute, not any of this is coming together like it was supposed to come together.' Because of that, I do believe this is going to be the most difficult hurdle for the Obama administration."

Still, Blackburn is not holding her breath for the White House to back down on Obamacare.

"I don't think they're ever going to give it up. They're going to keep at it. And of course, Sen. Flake and I gave the administration an opportunity, conservatives supported this, and we said look, let's delay this whole thing for a year because this, this, this, and this. We had seven or eight different things that were not ready for prime time, and the administration was beginning to admit that.

"We said, delay the whole thing for a year and then let's see where we are with this. It will allow a time for review and assessment," she said.

"Well, they didn't want to do that. So what they've done is in an unconstitutional manner move forward with delaying the law and implementing only portions that they want to implement," Blackburn said.


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The ongoing series of Obamacare delays means there is a greater chance of either repealing or curtailing the healthcare reform law, says Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
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Monday, 17 March 2014 06:48 PM
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