Rubio calls for delay of Obamacare sign-up deadline
Washington (CNN) - Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, will introduce a bill next week that would push back the March 31 deadline to sign up for Obamacare because of the federal website's technical issues.
"It's not fair to punish people for not buying something that's not available," he said Tuesday on CBS' "This Morning."
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'] [twitter-follow screen_name='KilloughCNN']
If individuals have not signed up for health care insurance by the end of March, they face a penalty with the Internal Revenue Service. Rubio's bill would move the deadline to six months after the Government Accountability Office certifies that HealthCare.gov is fully functional.
"All it's calling for is a limited delay on the individual mandate until the website is fixed. I think that's a very prudent approach," Rubio said. "Quite frankly, I think that's where we're going to have to wind up anyway."
Report: Healthcare website failed test ahead of rollout
Rep. Trey Radel, R-Florida, announced the House version of the bill also on Tuesday.
"The President seems content to exempt everyone but you and your family from his signature piece of legislation. Worse yet, Healthcare.gov and its Spanish counterpart, where you can shop for health insurance, is completely unusable," he said in a news release. "This bill delays the Obamacare fine on you and your family until you can actually sign up for health coverage, a common sense concept lost on an Administration determined to force this law on you at any cost.”
President Barack Obama addressed the website debacle at an event promoting the Affordable Care Act on Monday. He said "there's no sugarcoating" the problems that have persisted since the website launched on October 1, and argued "nobody is more frustrated by that than I am."
Asked on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" Monday night whether the administration would consider pushing back the deadline to sign up for insurance, White House spokesman Jay Carney didn't rule the option out, but argued they've long expected that most people wouldn't sign up for insurance until later on, anyway.
"We are three weeks into a six month process. So this is still [the] very early days," he said, before citing what they learned from the statewide insurance program in Massachusetts. "In these early stages, people spend a lot of time shopping. Most of the enrollment comes later, as the deadlines near. So we fully expect to have all of our systems operating more efficiently as we approach those deadlines."
HealthCare.gov: What works, what doesn't
Carney added that right now, they're focused on "making the system work."
"The product here is not a website," he said. "The product is affordable health insurance for Americans who haven't had it in the past."
Fmr. Obama innovation expert: HealthCare.gov created by "sloppy" contractors
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky said people aren't having as tough a time signing up on his state's exchange, arguing that most of the problems are on the federal website.
Beshear also sounded confident everything will work out in the end, but was open to the idea of a possible pushback of the deadline.
"Deadlines tend to move, you know, when things don't work well, we'll move deadlines," he said on CNN's "New Day." "I don't know exactly what decisions will be made because we're not there yet...I feel confident that we will have time to get people in this system."
- CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
@LOL,
Taxes are Constitutional.
Your point?
@ Rudy – N.Y.
"""Americans have lost some of their drive to work hard. It's because they have lost their hard working jobs. The Bush administration shipped 8 million manufacturing jobs out of the country between 2001 and 2009. People worked hard all of their lives and the right wing rewarded them with a pink slip"""
This started happening since Reagan fired those Air Traffic Controllers – then when they approved NAFTA, it was the Icing on the cake – believe me, I was one of those AFL – CIO Union workers, the company left us high & dry, after 30 years of working in that Factory, up north. Will never go to another factory again. "been there, done that"
I wasn't going to stay up there & be on welfare, especially after I collected all of my un-employment.
Lynda/Minnesota
"The law was passed in the middle of the night in December, that tells you something right there."
Well, yes. It "tells" me that the law WAS passed.
Fancy that.
___________
But wouldn't have if Obama told the TRUTH about it and didn't hold a midnight voting session! Not to mention if they would have followed the will of the people!
LOL wrote:
Yes the supreme court did up hold the law and PROVED that Obama lied! Didn't Obama say taxes will NOT increase because of the ACA, what did the supreme court call the penalty? That is right, a TAX, yet another lie from Obama! The law would NOT have passed if Obama called it a tax and he knew it so he called it a fine, he is so shady it is sick! The law was passed in the middle of the night in December, that tells you something right there.
-----------------------------
You should get something done about that rant of yours. It's bad for your health. Keep it up, and you're gonna have high blood pressure, ulcers, and worse. "You don't want to sell me death sticks. You want to go home and change your life. Oh yeah, these are not the droids that you're looking for."
Data Driven
@LOL,
Taxes are Constitutional.
Your point?
___________
Have you been paying attention????? OBAMA LIED TO GET IT PASSED! He clearly stated taxes will not go up and if the "penalty" is a tax then taxes went up and that is not even mentioning how he raised Medicare/Medicaid taxes because of the ACA!!! (well at least mine went up maybe not everyones did)
Brass Tacks: "We really really don't want several million people to sign up for private insurance via the ACA prior to November 2014...it could be totally disasterous for our party's re-election campaigns."
"That logic FAILS, you don't have to drive if you don't want to buy car insurance, you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to buy clothes, but we are going to be punished just for living if we don't want to buy health insurance, THAT IS WRONG!!!!"
Fine...in order to fix your analogy, we just need to make it the rules that "you don't have to stay living if you get sick or have an accident if you don't want to buy health insurance." Please...take that policy position to your favorite GOP/Teatroll congressmen and convince them to run on it.
LOL wrote:
That logic FAILS, you don't have to drive if you don't want to buy car insurance, you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to buy clothes, but we are going to be punished just for living if we don't want to buy health insurance, THAT IS WRONG!!!!
------------------
That's right. If you don't want to pay for health insurance then stay out of public hospitals.
Stay at home, practice holistic healing, and pray that you get better. I've saying that all along. The only reason you need health insurance is if you wind up in a public hospital, be it publicly or privately owned.
The key words here are: "Republican" and "delay".
Growing up back east there was a railroad, the D, L, & W. It doesn't matter what that really stood for because in commuter parlance it was the "Delay, Linger and Wait". That describes the GOP to a "T".
@LOL
"Not to mention if they would have followed the will of the people!"
------------
Since the ACA was one of his big campaign items and he was voted into office, the ACA is the will of the people. And keep in mind a portion of those who disagree wanted it to GO FURTHER toward socialized medicine. That is why the ACA was already a compromise by the way. So clearly the people in general want us to join the rest of the civilized countries on the planet.
@ rs – – – B & O railroad – "backward & outspoken"
rubio is still alive? where was he during the shutdown?
And your / our state is one that refused to set up an exchange therfore placing the burden of enrollment on the federal site partially causing the problems...Do you think this ill make you look like a reasonable voice on this subject?
Give up the senate seat and run for president. Then you can lose, and we will have you out of politics.
LOL
Evergreen
@missy681 – I agree with you. It not fair to be forced to buy car insurance but in some States, you are penalized for driving without it. Also, it is an unwritten law that forces everyone to buy clothing. You don't have to buy clothing but public nudity is a crime in many States, so you really are forced to buy clothing. It's the law.
_____________
That logic FAILS, you don't have to drive if you don't want to buy car insurance, you don't have to leave your house if you don't want to buy clothes, but we are going to be punished just for living if we don't want to buy health insurance, THAT IS WRONG!!!!
___________________________________________________________________________
Actually, LOL, your logical fails. Yes, by choosing not to drive you will not need car insurance. Yes, by choosing not to leave your home you would not need clothes. But what can you do to 100% guarantee you do not need health care? Other than being dead, nothing. An example of this is that there could be a fire in your home, you pass out from smoke inhalation, and your unconscious (and potentially naked) body is taken to the ER where the ER is forced to treat you due to Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 (passed by Republicans, BTW) which forces hospitals to provide emergency medical treatment to those that need it. Now perhaps you are for the repeal of EMTALA, but that's a different argument.
@LOL,
"Have you been paying attention????? OBAMA LIED TO GET IT PASSED!"
One question mark suffices, Mr. or Mrs. or Miss LOL. We also don't require (non-ironic) all-caps sentences. This here's the Ticker, babe - this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no AOL. We're wearing khakis and contempory casual, not American Apparel or Abercrombie & Dutch.
As to your question, am I paying attention? Nah, not really. I was equally bored with your talking point when the Supremes ruled on it. Though I do wish you'd make up your mind: did Obama lie to have to get Obamacare passed, or did he sneak it through without Congress knowing what was in it? Or was that a whole shoving-down-the-throat thing? I get winger talking points mixed up sometimes.
Too early to tell if what Ruby suggests is needed. When we are in mid Feb it will be apparent what course to take. But, for a change, a Republican is thinking of the whole nation and not just his 2016 prospects or anarchist religious beliefs. Kudows to Rubio!!!
I've only read a few of the comments here, but it seems like LOL must stand for "Lack Of Logic." Am I right, folks?
Marco has to pipe up and say something,anything after he let the Guns Over People tea potty set him up. His ratings are as low as the extremists in the House who shut down the government and lost 24 billion dollars.
Duke
And your / our state is one that refused to set up an exchange therfore placing the burden of enrollment on the federal site partially causing the problems...
---------------------
That's not a good reason. The federal site should have been prepared for the worst case scenario. It wasn't even close.
"If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
-President Barack Obama
June, 2009
The word "leader" is a very debatable word when talking about Obama. If that the best you have you people are in serious trouble. Try running Mrs. Benghazi next.
-------------------------------------------------
Seems that our best beat out your best TWICE.
I don't know who Mrs. Benghazi is but it sure looks like Hillary is gonna make it THREE in a row.
Americans don't negotiate with terrorists,that is well known. It was fun watching the Guns Over People tea potty terrorists whining"He won't negotiate with us" like children as President Obama stared a hole into them. Their simpleton wingnuts are still crying about it but Americans are glad that the President was strong.
I've only read a few of the comments here, but it seems like LOL must stand for "Lack Of Logic." Am I right, folks
-------------------------------------------------
More like "Loud Outcasted Lunatic" or "Lonely Old Loon".
Go back to Florida Marco and stay there. BTW: Take Cruz with you!
GiveMeABreak
"If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
-President Barack Obama
June, 2009
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If your employer took away your insurance, that's on them. That being said, employers change carriers all the time in an effort to save $$$.