Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the architect behind President Obama’s signature legislation, wasn’t exactly apologetic for the disastrous health care law he helped create when confronted with real world examples of premium hikes affecting millions of families.
During his appearance, Thursday on Varney and Company on Fox Business, host Stuart Varney offered Emanuel two examples sent in from viewers who wanted answers as to why their premiums skyrocketed since Obamacare became law. Varney asked Emanuel to address Chris who wrote:
“Got kicked off my old plan … Premiums up 400 [percent], copayment up 150 [percent], deductible $2500 before it was $250! Basically we’ve been screwed! And I’m not on Obamacare. This is what the law has done to me.”
The doctor said he was sorry to hear that but said it was bound to happen when you’re creating something to cover 310 million people.
Mark wrote in with similar issues:
“My monthly premiums in [Arizona] went from $400/mo. for 3 people to $850/mo … My deductible went from $4000 to $10,000 the month Obamacare went into effect!! Ask him why MY families’ premiums went up & Obama said they would go down???”
These examples didn’t seem overly concerning to Emanuel who simply doubled down in his defense of the law he basically said was better than nothing. It made for a very testy interview as Varney’s guest was more concerned that he was being used as a punching bag.
Emanuel was also on Fox News with Megan Kelly this week and offered three solutions to help fix Obamacare. Varney summarized them on his program:
“You want to increase the subsidies that would help, increase the fines for not having insurance, and restore payments to insurance companies from taxpayers. Those were the three fixes you put out last night with Megyn Kelly.”
Emanuel added blame on Republicans in his response saying they’ve taking away “risk corridors” through the passage of Medicare Part D.
“It is always the Republicans’ fault, isn’t it?” Varney replied.
Watch the fireworks above.