President Barack Obama used the “You can keep your doctor” pledge to sell the Affordable Care Act to the American people. Today the Obamacare and White House websites display no indication that the words were ever spoken.
Actually the president used a stronger word than “pledge” back when Obamacare was just a grand theory:
“Here is a guarantee that I’ve made. If you have an insurer you like, then you will be able to keep your insurer. If you’ve got a doctor you like, you’ll be able to keep your doctor.”
Some guarantee. By July 2013, The Weekly Standard could report that healthcare.gov had retreated to “may be able to keep.”
“If staying with your current doctor is important to you,” the website said then, “check to see if they are included before choosing a plan.” A link to a list of doctors in each plan’s network was included.
Even that provision disappeared last year. The “Keep your doctor” link now takes you to “plan-types” and a warning to check with your doctor to see if he or she participates.
So, from “You can keep your doctor” we have moved to a place where “Shop carefully and good luck, buddy” would be an apt slogan.
The White House website, whitehouse.gov., acknowledges none of this. No, it sneaks away from the issue. The “Reality Check” link once rebutted doubts about Obama’s guarantee, but now there’s nothing to argue about, apparently. Today the link leads to general information that never mentions the president’s promise.
Open enrollment for 2017 begins on Nov. 1, and not much is clear except that guarantees from the White House simply vanish and the mainstream media don’t report them missing.
From a roar to a whimper to the silence of an unmarked grave: Such has been the trajectory of President Obama’s “You can keep your doctor” pledge, the embarrassing pet that the administration prefers not to remember having and doesn’t want you to remember either.
(via: Conservative Tribune)
