Obama and Obamacare

President Obama lied to us -- he told America some real whoppers about ObamaCare

President Obama lied to us.

It wasn’t a white lie. It wasn’t a fib. It wasn’t a half truth. It was a bold-faced lie.

“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise,” President Obama told the American Medical Association in 2009. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”

That statement turned out to be a lie. Period.

On Thursday I asked my Facebook community if they had faced hardships as a result of ObamaCare. 

The response was overwhelming. I received nearly 1,000 replies – from small business owners, nurses, doctors, electricians, stay-at-home moms, and military personnel. Every single person said they had been adversely affected by President Obama’s signature legislation.

President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.

So let’s break down the president’s lies.

Thursday he told an audience in Largo, Maryland that the Affordable Care Act had not hurt jobs.

“There's no widespread evidence that the Affordable Care Act is hurting jobs,” he said.

Investor’s Business Daily reports that as a direct result of ObamaCare, more than 300 companies have either eliminated jobs or reduced full time jobs to part time jobs. Hospitals across the country are firing staff and reducing work hours.

Janet Blanck owns Country Blossom Florist, a small shop in Gilbert, Ariz. She tells me that as a result of ObamaCare she’s had to lay off three employees.

At one time, she employed eight people. Those who were not let go now work part-time because of rising insurance costs.

“Obama is killing us,” she told me. “It breaks my heart to have to do this. I have to protect what I have built and this is the only way that I know of to get around this law and still stay in business.”

President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.

Several hundred of you, like Joel Keefauver, wrote to tell me that your doctors were either shuttering their practices or shedding patients.

“Under the forthcoming Affordable Care Act and new healthcare regulations, I will no longer be able to provide the quality of healthcare you have come to expect and that I believe is proper,” the doctor wrote in a letter to Keefauver. “The increased cost imposed by complying with these new laws, along with decreasing reimbursements, creates a financial burden that is unsustainable for my solo practice.”

DiDi Henry’s elderly mother recently moved from Alabama to Louisiana. She has been unable to find a doctor willing to take Medicare patients.

“Several doctors told her that they just aren’t taking Medicare patients because of ObamaCare,” she told me.

The president also told us ObamaCare would make health insurance affordable? Another whopper.

Business owner Sheila Frey tells me her insurance rates have increased by 46 percent. Her small family-run company is paying $2,000 a month for coverage.

And remember how President Obama promised rebate checks to defray the cost of buying insurance coverage? Well, Shelia tells me her rebate check was a meager $127. You do the math.

Tammy Boisvert told me she had to find a new pediatrician.

“My family doctor of 20 years couldn’t take my newborn due to this insurance mess,” she wrote. “With a family of six all seen by this one doctor, I suddenly had to search for a new pediatrician.”

President Obama promised we could keep our current health care plan. Another lie.

Michelle Cox, of Asheville, N.C. wrote to me about a letter she received Thursday from her insurance company.

“ACA requires is to make significant changes to our health benefits plan designs,” the letter read. “We cannot renew your existing plan in 2014.”

Alissa Delamar is in the same boat -- searching for insurance after her company canceled its group plan.

“I’m stressed so much financially now I can’t fathom any more debt,” she wrote. “It leaves you hopeless.”

Catherine Schneider and her husband own Blue Sky Trucking in Montgomery, Minn. They were just informed that their insurance policy would be canceled in December.

“It’s too expensive,” she said. “The Affordable Care Act is disrupting our business and it has the potential to destroy our family.”

Allison deNijis’s family policy was also canceled.

“I thought Obama said we could keep our insurance?” she asked. “I thought he said our cost would decline? Not true! Epic fail!”

Her family was offered a new policy that now includes a nearly $1,000 monthly premium and $5,000 in individual deductibles.

“I am seriously considering just paying the fine and putting the differential amount in a personal savings account,” she told me. “Why should I pay over $13,000 in premiums?”

By the time ObamaCare is fully implemented, I suspect most Americans will be begging for death panels – to put us out of our misery.

For anyone who remembers the old Soviet Union the worse things got, the more the government said they were getting better. The outside world showed the lie. In leftist totalitarian regimes everywhere from Cuba to North Korea the government truth is protected by blocking access to the outside world. It has been widely reported that the North Korean population is convinced that life outside their country is much worse and they are living in the best possible conditions.