Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry pressed White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on reports of employers dropping low cost health insurance plans Thursday in the White House press conference.
Henry cited a Wall Street Journal report which stated more than 1,200 firms will have to drop their low cost health insurance plans starting January 1st under Obamacare.
The nation's largest provider of security guards, Securitas, is among those firms dropping coverage for 55,000 of their employees, according to the report.
Carney dismissed Henry's question and the Wall Street Journal's statistics as "anecdotes" which do not conform to what the White House press secretary termed the "overwhelming facts" that employers are by and large not eliminating health insurance:
ED HENRY: So maybe Ted Cruz should acknowledge the good things there, but why won't you acknowledge, for example, the one I asked before, 55,000 employees who had health care through their employer --
JAY CARNEY: Ed --
HENRY: Did you not say a couple of times that -- (inaudible) --
CARNEY: Come on, Ed. Really, I feel like we're doing this sideshow thing.
HENRY: I'm sorry -- no, no, no -- (inaudible) -- you get to keep your health care?
CARNEY: Absolutely, if you have --
HENRY: OK, what about those 55,000 people?
CARNEY: If you have -- again, you can come up with anecdotes and -- but the --
HENRY: That's what -- (inaudible) --
CARNEY: -- but the overwhelming facts dispute this -- that this -- that employers are shedding employees from insurance plans because of the Affordable Care Act or that they're moving into -- moving them into part-time status because of this. Again, you can -- you can ignore the data and come -- and present competing anecdotes. And again, I'm not diminishing --
HENRY: (Off mic) -- The Wall Street Journal yesterday, 55,000 people are moving -- that's the data.
CARNEY: Ed, please. We can -- no, that's an anecdote.
HENRY: (Off mic) -- data and -- (inaudible) --
CARNEY: There's a difference between anecdotes and data.