Frustrated with the Affordable Care Act’s calamitous rollout, House Democrats unloaded on White House officials during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the New York Times reported.
According to the Times, “tensions flared” as House Democrats told the officials that President Barack Obama had put them in a difficult position ahead of next year’s midterms by wrongly promising consumers that they can keep their current health care plans.
“I’m frustrated in how it rolled out, and I let them know in no uncertain terms,” Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) told the Times. “The point I was making in caucus to the administration is don’t give us this techno-babble that you’re going to do some administrative fix down the road. There’s a bill being put on the floor on Friday.”
The Times reported that the central message that emerged from the meeting “was that the White House and the House Democratic leadership have until Friday to come up with a satisfactory alternative” to House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-MI) “Keep Your Health Plan Act.”
If the White House fails to deliver by then, the Democrats reportedly said they may have no choice but to support Upton’s bill.
The latest disappointment with the law’s rollout came Wednesday when the Obama administration announced that only 106,185 people nationwide have enrolled in private health coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
