Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who is running against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), chided President Obama last week over the health care law, suggesting that it reflects his inexperience working with uninsured Americans.
“The president is a community organizer. You wonder if he ever worked with a poor person,” Cassidy said at the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting, as recorded by Buzzfeed.
“Insurance people, they will tell you that they will go to a company and the employer will pay for everything, and there are some people who will not sign up,” he added. “Turns out, those are my patients. They’re illiterate. I’m not saying that to be mean. I say that in compassion. They cannot read. The idea they’re going to go on the internet and work through a 16-page document to put in their data and sign up does not reflect on understanding of who is having the hardest time in our economy.”
The congressman, who is a doctor and who also opposes expanding Medicaid in Louisiana, then described the demographic he feels the health care law does not reach.
“That I actually think reflects the reality of who the uninsured are: relatively less sophisticated, less comfortable with forms, less educated,” he said while explaining his alternative to Obamacare.
Cassidy clarified his comments to ABC News on Thursday, explaining that he feels Obama’s healthcare law lacks “compassion.”
“It is self-evident to anyone who has worked with the uninsured, as I have for decades, that the uninsured come from all segments of society. This includes the more and the less educated,” Cassidy said in a statement. “That’s exactly the point I made and make: if we seek to be truly compassionate, our policies must meet people where they are. Obamacare’s one-size-fits-all model lacks this basic measure of compassion.”
