Three Republican senators introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the Obama administration to disclosure 2015 health insurance prices under Obamacare prior to the 2014 election.
It’s a direct counterpoint to the administration’s decision last month to postpone the next Obamacare open enrollment period until after the election — which has the side effect of preventing people from seeing their new 2015 premiums until after they’ve cast their votes. Republicans immediately criticized the move as a political ploy.
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and John Barrasso (R-WY) would aim to reverse the delay by requiring that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services release premium cost information in mid-October — one month before open enrollment is now scheduled to begin.
“The only Americans the Obama administration’s delay will help is Democratic politicians who voted for Obamacare, because it delays disclosure of some of the law’s most insidious effects for 2015 until after the election,” Alexander, the ranking member on the Senate health committee, said in a statement. “This legislation would stop the administration from playing politics with Americans’ health care, and ensure that families will know what the costs will be well before the exchanges open.”
Alexander and Enzi are both running for re-election in 2014 and facing primary challengers.
Administration officials have insisted that the decision was not politically motivated, and the bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
