By Todd Starnes of Fox News
President Obama lied to us.
It wasn’t a white lie. It wasn’t a fib. It wasn’t a half truth. It was a bold-faced lie.
“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise,” President Obama told the American Medical Association in 2009. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
That statement turned out to be a lie. Period.
On Thursday I asked my Facebook community if they had faced hardships as a result of ObamaCare.
The response was overwhelming. I received nearly 1,000 replies – from small business owners, nurses, doctors, electricians, stay-at-home moms, and military personnel. Every single person said they had been adversely affected by President Obama’s signature legislation.
President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.
So let’s break down the president’s lies.
Thursday he told an audience in Largo, Maryland that the Affordable Care Act had not hurt jobs.
“There’s no widespread evidence that the Affordable Care Act is hurting jobs,” he said.
Investor’s Business Daily reports that as a direct result of ObamaCare, more than 300 companies have either eliminated jobs or reduced full time jobs to part time jobs. Hospitals across the country are firing staff and reducing work hours.
Janet Blanck owns Country Blossom Florist, a small shop in Gilbert, Ariz. She tells me that as a result of ObamaCare she’s had to lay off three employees.
At one time, she employed eight people. Those who were not let go now work part-time because of rising insurance costs.
“Obama is killing us,” she told me. “It breaks my heart to have to do this. I have to protect what I have built and this is the only way that I know of to get around this law and still stay in business.”
President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.
Several hundred of you, like Joel Keefauver, wrote to tell me that your doctors were either shuttering their practices or shedding patients.
“Under the forthcoming Affordable Care Act and new healthcare regulations, I will no longer be able to provide the quality of healthcare you have come to expect and that I believe is proper,” the doctor wrote in a letter to Keefauver. “The increased cost imposed by complying with these new laws, along with decreasing reimbursements, creates a financial burden that is unsustainable for my solo practice.”
DiDi Henry’s elderly mother recently moved from Alabama to Louisiana. She has been unable to find a doctor willing to take Medicare patients.
“Several doctors told her that they just aren’t taking Medicare patients because of ObamaCare,” she told me.
The president also told us ObamaCare would make health insurance affordable? Another whopper.
Business owner Sheila Frey tells me her insurance rates have increased by 46 percent. Her small family-run company is paying $2,000 a month for coverage.
And remember how President Obama promised rebate checks to defray the cost of buying insurance coverage? Well, Shelia tells me her rebate check was a meager $127. You do the math.
Tammy Boisvert told me she had to find a new pediatrician.
“My family doctor of 20 years couldn’t take my newborn due to this insurance mess,” she wrote. “With a family of six all seen by this one doctor, I suddenly had to search for a new pediatrician.”
President Obama promised we could keep our current health care plan. Another lie.
