By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congressman Mike Rogers (R) from Saks voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Rogers and the other Republican members of Congress were critical of President Barack Obama’s controversial healthcare reform proposal and at this point the unpopular legislation appears to have failed to meet anybody’s expectations.
Rep. Rogers said in his monthly column, “America is over six weeks in to the Obamacare rollout, and things are still a mess. People are still having problems signing up, but even more painful are the letters folks are receiving about the changes to their current health care plans. Every day we are hearing more and more about people’s current health care plans being dropped completely. Because of this, families and individuals are now being forced into different and often times much more expensive health care plans.”
Rep. Rogers continued, “Many folks across East Alabama may have to make the tough decision to forego their health insurance because of unforeseen increases in the cost of their health care premiums and deductibles. Yet under Obamacare, folks are required to purchase health insurance by March of 2014 to avoid paying a penalty. They just cannot afford any of it.”
Rep. Rogers sai that Obamacare has many flaws, but forcing people off their current plans when they were promised they could keep what they had has really hit home, which is why Rogers recently cosponsored H.R. 3350, the Keep Your Health Plan Act.
Rogers said, “This legislation, introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), would allow health care plans on the individual market to remain available so people could have the option to keep their current health care plans.” “Although this bill would help in the short term, there is no substitute for getting rid of Obamacare altogether.”
The website to sign up for Obamacare, Healthcare.gov, was still not working today when The Alabama Political Reporter tested it out. While millions of Americans are losing their coverage due to Obamacare legislating their old coverage out of existence or their employer moving them to part time to avoid the high cost of insuring full time employees, many are finding that they either can’t afford the costly new healthcare insurance or are unable to get the President’s website to even accept their application.
The healthcare roll out debacle has hurt the President’s popularity. A Quinnipiac poll released late Tuesday showed that Americans now trust Congressional Republicans more than the President on healthcare 43% to 42%. Republicans also get the edge on the economy 45% to 41%, on immigration 41% to 40%, and the federal budget 45% to 40%. 54% disapprove of the President’s job performance while only 39% approve. Only 36% approve of the President’s handling of healthcare. 60% disapprove.
On the Federal budget only 32% approve of the President’s handling of the budget while 62% disapprove. Only 19% believe that the quality of healthcare they and their family receive will get better because of the Affordable Care Act. 43% believe that their healthcare will get worse and 33% expect no change. 55% now oppose the Affordable Care Act while only 39% still support the ACA.
Congressman Mike Rogers represents Alabama’s Third Congressional District
