On Wednesday’s “The Kelly File,” Fox News host Megyn Kelly went head-to-head with outspoken New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone over Obamacare.
Pallone attempted to offer an explanation insurance policies cancelled in the wake of Obamacare’s launch, blaming insurance providers and their “lousy plans.”
“You can keep as long as the insurance company agrees to continue to sell it but the problem is a lot of insurance companies now have been caught because they are selling lousy plans at a high price that are skeletal and don’t provide any benefits,” Pallone said. “So they are now canceling those lousy plans, in which case many of them are just a scam and saying, ‘Look, we are not going to sell this because nobody is going to buy it. And therefore, we’ll give you a better plan that has better benefits at a more affordable price.’ So the president has never said that he could stop the insurance companies from canceling plans. This is a private market. This is a competitive market.”
Kelly disagreed, and argued that some cancellations were a result of Obamacare’s strict regulations.
PALLONE: They tell them where to get insurance. Look the bottom line is, if you are selling a lousy policy at a price that’s too high, nobody is going to buy it.
KELLY: That’s not true.
PALLONE: And so they are canceling these policies because they know people won’t buy them. It’s a competitive marketplace. That’s the problem.
KELLY: But they were buying them.
[CROSSTALK]
PALLONE: But they won’t buy them anymore when they have a better alternative.
KELLY: There were 15 million people who bought them and said “I like them.”
PALLONE: They’re not going to buy them anymore when they have a better alternative.
KELLY: Thanks to you.
PALLONE: Well, I can’t go out as an insurance company and sell a lousy policy anymore at a high price.
KELLY: People like — why do you get to decide what’s lousy? Why can’t the American people say ‘it’s lousy for you. For me, I like it.’
PALLONE: It’s capitalism. You can go out and buy whatever you want, but the insurance company realizes they can’t sell this lousy insurance policy anymore.
KELLY: They were selling it, sir. You are ignoring my point. They were selling it. Some 15 million Americans thought it was great. You didn’t like it, but they liked it. And then you and the president —
PALLONE: Now there are better alternatives.
The two continued the dialogue until Kelly ran out of time for the segment.
