{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=2027ab02-c09d-4d73-ab84-253ae9f5f72c", "Jefferson City News-Tribune: Blunt: Changes needed for health care plan to work", "2013-11-08", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Roy Blunt", "B000575", "www.blunt.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Bob Watson \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tNever a fan of the federal health care law commonly called \u201cObamacare,\u201d U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt told Missouri reporters again Thursday morning he thinks \u201cthe biggest enemy of Obamacare would be Obamacare.\u201d\r\nDuring a telephone news conference, the Missouri Republican wondered if the continuing comments about problems with the national website, www.healthcare.gov, and the Obama administration\u2019s sometimes faltering efforts to get it working correctly are \u201cmaybe, an indication of how many other unanticipated problems there are out there.\u201d\r\nHe noted many people are complaining that their current policies are being canceled, with much more expensive replacement coverage.\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve asked Missourians to visit our website, Blunt.Senate.gov, to share their stories,\u201d Blunt said. \u201cAnd, if their stories are good, I want them to share those, too.\r\n\u201cIf they\u2019ve really found a plan that is a better plan for them, that saves money, I\u2019d like to hear about it.\u201d\r\nSome supporters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have said the insurance industry is responsible for the problems with canceled coverage and higher-cost replacements.\r\nBut, Blunt said: \u201cThe regulation itself that actually was designed to implement the law set an unreasonable expectation. \u2026 It was a system that was designed to fail.\u201d\r\nHe said insurance companies shouldn\u2019t be blamed or victimized.\r\n\u201cThe two fundamental flaws here are the idea that you just get your insurance from a regular carrier, irrespective of your current health situation,\u201d Blunt said, \u201cand that, somehow, that would be made up for by lots of young, healthy people buying insurance at higher rates than they\u2019ve ever seen before \u2014 and a penalty that\u2019s not high enough to, frankly, drive behavior.\u201d\r\nFrom the beginning, President Barack Obama and the health care law\u2019s supporters have said its chief goal is getting people insured who aren\u2019t covered now.\r\nBut Blunt and others have argued that Congress should have passed measures to improve the current health care system.\r\n\u201cI think it\u2019s wrong to say that the current health care system was serving every need we needed to serve,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut it would be right to say it was the best health care system in the world \u2014 and let\u2019s be sure we don\u2019t lose that as we move forward.\u201d\r\nHe\u2019s been saying since before Congress passed the current, controversial ACA in 2010 that \u201cthe more competitive that (health care) market could be, the better off we could be. You know that I\u2019ve advocated, for at least six or seven years now \u2026 that you should be able to buy any insurance policy that you could find, that was available.\r\n\u201cIf you could find it on the Internet and it was approved by any state, you should be able to have that as one of your options \u2014 we could have expanded the marketplace rather than contracted and further defined the marketplace.\u201d\r\nBut the insurance industry \u201calways fought that because they liked the restricted, state-by-state marketplace,\u201d he said.\r\nOther reforms Blunt and other Republicans couldn\u2019t get added to the health care law included \u201cmedical liability reform, buying across state lines, more transparency, fair tax treatment (and) high risk pools that serve more people.\u201d\r\nWhere the ACA mandates policies cover a multitude of needs, including hospitalization, maternity coverage and mental health services, Blunt said people should be able to choose the kind of coverage they want and need.\r\n\u201cIf you define the coverage in ways that make it so expensive that people don\u2019t have it, have you achieved the goal or not? And I\u2019d say the answer is, no you have not achieved the goal,\u201d he explained.\r\nBecause of the continuing problems with the current law, he added, \u201cI believe there will be a significant number of people two years from now who don\u2019t have coverage, who had coverage (now). And the fault of that will be the so-called Affordable Care Act.\u201d\r\nBlunt said that, as more people get concerned about the law\u2019s problems, \u201cThere is a chance here that what may happen (is) that there is a real opportunity to look at this all over again \u2014 and that would be the better thing to do.\u201d\r\nRead more here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=2027ab02-c09d-4d73-ab84-253ae9f5f72c"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6170220915228128, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}