Republican strategist John Brabender said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” show that President Barack Obama is “the only person really trying to repeal [Obamacare] at this point.”
“I find the real irony is that while Republicans have been talking about repealing Obamacare, you have this president basically delaying the mandate for businesses, delaying the mandate for individuals to sign up and changing the hardship rules so that if you’re breathing, you basically qualify. He seems to be the only person really trying to repeal it at this point,” said Brabender, who worked for former Sen. Rick Santorum.
On Friday, the House voted to delay the “individual mandate to buy health insurance for a decade, as part of a bill that would spare doctors from drastic cuts to their Medicare payments at the end of the month,” Fox News reported. Democrats opposed the measure, which now goes to the Senate where it is expected to die.
In February, the Obama administration delayed the business mandate for companies with 50 to 99 employees until 2016, giving them two more years to offer health insurance to almost all their full-time workers, the Washington Post reported. Companies with 100 or more workes will get a one-year extension by giving them until next year to offer health insurance to 70 percent of full-time workers instead of 95 percent of employees by 2015.
The Department of Health and Human Services last week said 4.2 million people signed up so far for private insurance plans through Obamacare through the end of February – a figure far lower than the Obama administration’s initial goal of 7 million sign-ups.