GOP: ObamaCare problem more than website

“The problem with ObamaCare is not just the website; it’s the whole law,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday.

House Republican leaders on Tuesday sought to shift focus from the “broken” ObamaCare website to broader problems with the law by accusing the Obama administration of misleading people about whether they could keep their healthcare insurance.

“The problem with ObamaCare is not just the website; it’s the whole law,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a Capitol press conference. “It’s time to delay this. It’s time to fix this before it gets any worse.”

{mosads}House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the problems run “much deeper than just the website” and waved a letter that he said a Virginia constituent had received from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield informing him that because of the requirements of the new law, his insurance plan would no longer be available.

“What we learned this morning is the president knew these problems were coming,” Cantor said. “This is really, really troubling, I believe, for all the American people. If the president knew these letters were coming and still indicated that you could keep your healthcare plan if you liked it, now that raises some serious questions about the sales job of ObamaCare.”

Cantor referred to reports that, despite President Obama’s oft-repeated promise to the contrary, the administration was aware that many insurance companies would stop offering plans that did not conform to the law’s new coverage requirements.

“The website is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.), vice chairwoman of the House Republican conference.

Yet while Boehner and other leaders called for efforts to “delay” or “fix” the law, the Speaker later said the GOP was not moving off its long-standing message that the law needed to be repealed and replaced in its entirety.

“There is no way to fix this monstrosity,” Boehner said in response to a question. “We want to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with patient-centered healthcare,” he added.