Obamacare is still a very central issue that Lance continues
to be focused on throughout the debate in Congress. Lance is now not only concerned with the welfare of his
specific district but now branching out to the rest of the population of New
Jersey and all Americans in general.
There was recently a report from CBS News that stated around two million
total Americans, which includes around 800,000 citizens in New Jersey have
already been forewarned that now their insurance plans for this coming year are
not going to be able to be renewed due to their failure to align with the
requirements set out by Obamacare.
What is concerning is the short notice Americans are receiving for the
failure of the renewal of these plans for the next year. If Obama and his new Affordable
Healthcare Act noticed earlier that this would be an issue that would affect a
huge chunk of the American people, then they should have been made aware of
these provisions a significant amount of time earlier. Previously, Obama had promised, “if you
like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” (Lance
2013). Unfortunately, as Lance as
well as many other concerned Senators and Representatives this does not seem to
be the case. It is sketchy because
the Administration really should have known already about these types of
provisions that were to be enacted with this new law. Lance points out that possibly the Obama Administration
failed to mention this part of the law, so he would gain more support for it in
Congress. It now seems to be
emerging that Obama and his Administration have known for around three years
that millions of Americans would be unable to keep their current insurance
plans. In addition this is not
solely affecting the average American, but now even retired people are realizing
that their Medicare Advantage plans will begin to be eliminated for the
upcoming year as well.
It
is interesting that a former president and a representative as well from the
Democratic Party has spoken out against Obama. Past President Bill Clinton recently stated that he thought
it was quite ridiculous that Obama would not honor what he had previously
stated in that many insurance plans would be grandfathered, especially if they
were very specific and beneficial plans.
Now, what does this mean for Congress? What should they be doing in order to protect the needs of
the American people? Well,
currently there is talk of a new bill being drafted and possibly voted on
called the Keep Your Healthcare Plan Act. This is a new bill that Representative
Leonard Lance has been backing and is in great support of. Lance stated, “In response to the
growing outcry over insurance-plan cancellations, I have cosponsored a bill
recently to allow consumers to keep their current plans under Obamacare.” In my opinion, Lance is serving his
district well as well as the American people in general in listening to their
recent complaints. Hopefully, many
other representatives and senators will back Lance and understand that it is
unacceptable for the President to go back on his promise to the American
people. Lance was due to speak
with the Health and Human Services Secretary, Ms. Kathleen Sebelius in the past
week. The results of this
discussion are to be announced.
*Sources:
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