Liberal Kay Hagan Stands By ObamaCare | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    In the U.S. Senate, Kay Hagan has voted for President Obama's liberal agenda a staggering 95 percent of the time, which includes casting the deciding vote for ObamaCare.

    Hagan didn't just vote for ObamaCare—she served on the very Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee that helped write the bill.

    If anyone knew what was actually in ObamaCare, it should have been Hagan. Yet, when selling the bill to North Carolinians, Hagan repeatedly mislead the public, making one false promise after another.

• Both Obama and Hagan repeatedly promised that Americans who liked their current health insurance plans and their doctors would be able to keep them. But at least 473,000 North Carolinians received cancellation notices. PolitiFact named Obama and Hagan's broken promise as its "Lie of the Year" for 2013.
• Hagan promised small business owners that there would be "a lot of positives" in ObamaCare and it would not negatively impact them. But ObamaCare has proven to be devastating for small business owners, forcing many to cut staff and scrap hiring plans.
• Hagan promised North Carolina seniors that their Medicare coverage wouldn't be impacted. That turned out to be a lie, as Hagan voted to cut Medicare Advantage by more than $200 billion over 10 years to pay for ObamaCare. Many seniors who depend on the program are already feeling the consequences of the cuts, losing their current plans and their doctors.

    But even as Hagan's failed healthcare law is causing premiums to skyrocket and forcing people to lose their insurance plans and their doctors, she isn't backing down.

    To this day, Hagan has refused to apologize for lying to North Carolinians with promises they could keep their plans if they liked them.

    Last December, Hagan unequivocally doubled-down on her support for ObamaCare, saying she would "vote for it again" if she were given another chance.

    While Hagan would vote for ObamaCare again as-is, Thom Tillis understands that we desperately need a market-based approach to health-care reform to improve access and slow-down rising costs.

    And unlike Hagan, Tillis knows that in order for health-care reform to be successful, Senators need to work across the aisle to ensure that the legislation is bipartisan.



BACKGROUND

    On July 15, 2009, Hagan Voted "Yea" To Pass ObamaCare Through The HELP Committee. (Committee On Health, Education, Labor, And Pensions, U.S. Senate, Mark-Up For Health Care Reform Legislation, 7/15/09)

    On December 24, 2009, Hagan Cast The Deciding Vote For Obamacare. (H.R. 3590, Roll Call #396, Passed 60-39-1, 12/24/09, Hagan Voted Yea)

    In December 2013, When Asked By Politico If She Would Vote For ObamaCare Again, Hagan Replied, "Yeah, I Would Vote For It Again." "But when pressed about whether she would back the health care law if she had another chance, Hagan said: 'Yeah, I would vote for it again. People have to realize that the cost of health care was getting out of reach for everybody.'" (Manu Raju, "North Carolina's Choice," Politico, 12/12/13)

    Hagan Repeatedly Promised North Carolinians That If They Liked Their Current Plans They Could Keep Them Under ObamaCare. HAGAN: "I think the fundamental promise of this effort to the American people has been and continue to be that if you got health insurance now, you're happy with it, you can keep it." (Kay Hagan, Health Care Reform Markup, 6/17/09)

    473,000 North Carolinians Were Hit With Cancellation Notices Last Year. "Twenty-one companies terminated 183,821 individual and group health insurance policies affecting 473,724 people by late October, according to figures collected by North Carolina's Insurance Department. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina issued 151,640 cancellations, followed by 20,370 by Coventry Health and 4,459 by Aetna. Aetna bought Coventry this year." (Emery P. Dalesio, "Obama Move On Canceled Plans May Touch 475K In NC," Associated Press, 11/14/13)

    Hagan Has Refused To Apologize For Misleading North Carolinians About The Cancellations. "State Republicans say Senator Hagan should be held accountable for promises she made about the Affordable Care Act...Tonight, she is issuing no apologies." (WTVD, 11/8/13)

    Hagan Claimed There Are "A Lot Of Positives" For Small Businesses In ObamaCare, And The Law Does Not "Apply" To Them. HAGAN: "First I want to ask the question, how large is your small business? If it's fifty employees or less, the new Affordable Care Act doesn't apply to you at all. So that's off the equation...So I think there's a lot of positives here that I want to encourage small businesses to reach out to my office and we can certainly help with information." (Kay Hagan, WCCB Interview, 8/27/13)

    A Recent U.S. Bank Survey Found That 61 Percent Of Small Business Owners Say ObamaCare Has Had A Negative Impact On Their Business, While 45 Percent Of Small Business Owners With Five Or More Employees Said They Scrapped Hiring Plans Because Of ObamaCare. (2014 U.S. Bank Small Business Annual Survey, 4/24/14)

    Hagan Promised North Carolina Seniors That ObamaCare Would Not Impact Their Medicare Coverage. "When asked about cuts in Medicare as a result of health care legislation, Hagan replied, 'I keep hearing that, and I can guarantee people will not see a drop in their Medicare coverage.'" (Kevin Reid, "Sen. Hagan plays key role in health care legislation," Thomasville Times, 11/18/09)

    Because Of ObamaCare's Cuts To Medicare Advantage, Seniors Who Rely On The Program Are Already Losing Their Plans And Their Doctors. "Benefits experts say patients are seeing fewer plan choices this year, and more are losing doctors from their insurance coverage networks." (Tom Murphy, "4 keys to scrutinizing Medicare Advantage cuts," Associated Press, 11/15/13)