Citing the ongoing problems that the government health care exchange website was experiencing, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Monday, he will file legislation next week to delay the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act until six months after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) certifies it’s fully functional.
“It is not fair that next year Americans will be punished for not buying ObamaCare when the website they are supposed to buy it on doesn’t work,” said Rubio in a statement. “That is why I will offer legislation to delay the individual mandate to buy insurance until the GAO certifies that the ObamaCare exchange website has been fixed and fully functional for at least six months.”
“I believe this entire law should, and will, eventually be repealed and replaced. But until that happens, I will continue looking for ways to protect Americans from the disaster that is ObamaCare.
“The legislation, which will be introduced when the U.S. Senate reconvenes next week, would delay the individual mandate until six months after the GAO certifies the websites and all other sign-up options (phone, mail, fax) are fully functional. Thereafter, it exempts people from paying the mandate fines if they can prove that they tried to sign up but could not because of technical or customer service issues.”
Speaking from the White House today, President Barack Obama did agree that the roll out of the government health care market place had experienced problems but that the product is good and affordable. Although Obama didn’t elaborate on the problems, he reminded that it’s now only three weeks into a six-month enrollment period and everything was being done to rectify the issues.
“Everyone who wants insurance through the marketplace will get it,” said Obama, “We are doing everything we can possibly do to address the problems.”
Obama also said there are other options the uninsured could utilize to purchase insurance through the government exchange healthcare.gov, such as calling the Call Centers at # 1-800-318-2596.
