MSNBC host Chris Matthews said President Obama's "credibility" would be under pressure Tuesday on Morning Joe if accounts that people with "normal medical expenses" were having their insurance plans cancelled are true, as NBC reported Monday.
"I think it's a real challenge if people with regular policies out there that cover normal medical expenses are now told, 'Wait a minute, that policy doesn't count,'" Matthews said. "I think that will be a real problem for the president in terms of his credibility, if those accounts are in that list."
NBC reported Monday the Obama administration knew since 2010 that millions of Americans would not keep their health insurance, despite his repeated pledges that Obamacare would not force cancellations of existing coverage policies:
Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, "40 to 67 percent" of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, "the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range."
Full exchange:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Chris Matthews, let me start with you. The president has been hit with a one, two, three regarding the Affordable Care Act. One, of course, the website that we've all been talking about for a long time. number two the L.A. Times article this weekend talking about the sticker shock effect which actually will have more of an impact probably in the long run. And thirdly, Lisa Myers' report this morning talking about all those assurances the president gave about people being able to keep their insurance, actually not ended up being true at the end. The White House seems to be in a position, they need to get out in front of all of these stories. How do they do it?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, they posted on November 30 numbers, that that's the end date of the fun and games numbers, or the opposite of fun and games. I think there's going to be some pushback on the issues of those insured people who were assured they wouldn't get a rate hike or whatever. I think there's a lot of people in that list who have catastrophic. Catastrophic basically covers a very limited list of horrific challenges, cancer, et cetera. It doesn't cover the normal medical experience of an average person so they are much cheaper like the person that Bill Kristol was alluding to the other day on this program. I kept thinking wait a minute, what does that policy cover, no wonder it doesn't qualify. He kept offering it up as an example of an average person out there basically being double-crossed by the president. I think it's a real challenge if people with regular policies out there that cover normal medical expenses are now told wait a minute that policy doesn't count. I think that will be a real problem for the president in terms of his credibility, if those accounts are in that list.