Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a bioethicist and architect of President Obama’s health care law, offered a somewhat novel explanation for Mr. Obama’s now-debunked promise that if people liked their doctors and health insurance plans, they could keep them under the law.
“The president never said you were going to have unlimited choice of any doctor in the country you want to go to,” Dr. Emanuel said on “Fox News Sunday.” “[I]f you want to pay more for an insurance company that covers your doctor, you can do that. This is a matter of choice. We know in all sorts of places you pay more for certain — for a wider range of choices or a wider range of benefits.”
Dr. Emanuel, the brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, said no one ever promised that premiums wouldn’t increase and that they actually went up 80 percent after inflation under President George W. Bush.
“We have actually seen a leveling off of health care costs and premiums in the last few years because of changes that have been made,” he said. “As a matter of fact, choice is something we all understand, and we all understand that for more choice, more benefits, you have to pay more.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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