In an appearance on “Fox and Friends” on Thursday, Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich claimed that “no one really anticipated” the recent insurance plans cancellations due to new health-care regulations.
“Some of those [people] got policies over the last couple years that probably shouldn’t have been sold those policies when insurance companies knew those policies would be canceled,” Begich said of insurance policy cancellations on the show. “We’re proposing a fix today that I’m happy to support.”
Then, moments later on the show, Begich said, “This, to me, is the right fix for something that I can tell you no one really anticipated.”
Back in February 2010, however, when the White House held a health-care summit, it was clear that administration officials understood that millions of Americans would lose their policies.
“The eight or nine million people who might have to change their coverage … would be folks that the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, estimates would find that the deal in the exchange better,” President Barack Obama said in 2010. “[It] would be a better deal.”
Even the CBO knew in 2009 that “relatively few non-group policies would remain grandfathered by 2016.” The CBO released this statement in a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh, in which the CBO attached a lengthy analysis of health insurance premiums.
Fox and Friends host Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked Begich, “The president knew in their minds that they were going to lose their policies. Do you believe that the president knew?”
“I don’t know if the president knew or not,” Begich answered.
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