On Wednesday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel, and for the second time since the debut of her show last month, Megyn Kelly took on White House health care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel over Obamacare.
This time Kelly pressed Emanuel on whether the administration should do anything about the estimated 3 to 5 million people that have lost their health care plans under Obamacare and the foreseen problems with the law’s implementation.
The two disputed the numbers of those who have had their coverage canceled and how many people need to sign up for Obamacare before it can work successfully. But Emanuel conceded there was a problem making the exchanges operable.
“[I]t’s not just seven million, and the number from the individual market — that’s the first point,” Emanuel said. “The second point is you have to remember in the individual market before Obamacare. The insurance companies were canceling people all the time. That’s one of the reasons we wanted the exchanges the to work. And I agree with you — without the exchanges working this cancellation policy is worrisome. It was worrisome without Obamacare. It is worrisome today. The key thing is to get the exchanges working, to get the website working so those people have a place to go where they will get better insurance at a reasonable rate overall.”
Later, Emanuel insisted the details that Kelly and some of her colleagues on Fox News have been emphasizing were not relevant. Kelly interrupted and explained to Emanuel why she thought he was wrong and asked why the Obama administration did not prepare appropriately for canceled plans.
“Stop saying that, because I’ll tell you what’s relevant to my viewers,” Kelly said. “I think I know my viewers, and I think they think this is relevant. So can’t you just assume with me for the purposes of our discussion that I’m right and give us an answer?”
“So it’s all the insurance companies’ fault,” she continued. “They did something bad … why didn’t you foresee that and why didn’t you plan against it? Why didn’t you say to the American people, ‘You need to know what’s going to happen on the individual insurance market because it’s going to be very relevant to your life, your health and your children’s health?’”