Rep. Matt Cartwright (D., Penn.) called the possibility of more Americans losing their insurance policies under Obamacare "a good thing" in an interview on MSNBC Live Friday.
A member of the "strike team" sent by the White House to promote the law, Cartwright continued the talking point that those losing their insurance would ultimately benefit from that happening.
"They have immense deductibles," he said. "They have annual and lifetime caps. There's so many people out there with what I call phony insurance policies, and the fact that they're going to lose those policies, sooner or later, I think is a good thing. Because what we're up to here is we are strengthening the health care system in this country."
Full exchange:
THOMAS ROBERTS: But if we look at Politico and they have this article out today suggesting that a possible Obamacare worst-case scenario would be that the possibility on January 1, the number of uninsured Americans actually goes up instead of down. And the article points out even the small number of people who can't replace their coverage and they end up uninsured on January 1 would send Obamacare right back into PR hell. So do you agree with that? Because again, it was a small percent, 5% of this country that were getting purged off their insurance carriers because of being on plans that were unacceptable to the bottom line foundation of the ACA. So if January 1 rolls around and as Politico points out, that those people exist as uninsured and problematic, is that another PR problem?
MATT CARTWRIGHT: I think you're dealing in large part in semantics there, Thomas. Because a lot of those people, they did have policies that didn't meet the minimum standards. That's just not a theoretical discussion. There's a reason you have minimum standards. There are people out there who have insurance that's really, it's an illusion of coverage. They have immense deductibles. They have annual and lifetime caps. There's so many people out there with what I call phony insurance policies, and the fact that they're going to lose those policies, sooner or later, I think is a good thing. Because what we're up to here is we are strengthening the health care system in this country.