Health reform implementation

GOP senator: Administration ‘cooking the books’ on ObamaCare enrollment

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Sunday that the Obama administration was “cooking the books” on enrollment figures for ObamaCare.

{mosads}Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Barrasso said he wasn’t persuaded by statistics that said more than 6 million people had signed up for insurance under the healthcare law.

“I don’t think it means anything,” he said. “People … want to know, once all this is said and done, what kind of insurance will those people actually have.”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who has offered legislation to make fixes to ObamaCare, said it was a great victory for so many people to have signed up for insurance and said he wasn’t concerned about the number of young people or uninsured signing up.

“They’re probably going to make that 7 million target, which was set two years ago,” King said. “Two months ago, if you had asked me, I would have said there’s no chance because the rollout was so bungled.”

King also said he didn’t have an issue with the administration massaging Monday’s deadline for people to sign up for insurance.

“That’s just common sense. We do that all the time. I think the best example is people in line to vote,” King said.

The legislation that King has introduced, along with vulnerable Democratic incumbents, would offer a new lower-cost, higher-deductible insurance plan under ObamaCare and exempt more companies from the employer mandate.

But with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saying no vote was forthcoming on that bill, Barrasso charged that the legislation was a case of “politicians trying to save their political careers instead of focusing on patient care.”

The bill, Barrasso later said, “only nibbles around the edges” and “doesn’t get to the fundamental flaws.”

“This healthcare law is not fixable,” he insisted.

Tags Angus King health insurance reform John Barrasso ObamaCare Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

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