On the one hand:
MIAMI (AP) — Florida’s Republican leaders have fought the Affordable Care Act at every turn, banning navigators from county health departments, offering no state dollars to boost outreach efforts to 3.5 million uninsured and leading the fight to repeal the law. Yet the state has emerged as a tale of what went right with President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
More than 440,000 Florida residents had been enrolled through the federal marketplace through the end of February.
On the other:
“What the hell is this, a joke?” Boehner said at his weekly press conference.
He was responding to the administration’s announcement on Tuesday evening that people who had begun the process of signing up for insurance through the federal exchanges would have until mid-April to do so, instead of March 31.
The Speaker called the move “another deadline made meaningless,” adding it to a litany of unilateral changes that the administration has made to the law.
“This is part of a long-term pattern of this administration manipulating the law for its own convenience,” Boehner said. “It’s not hard to understand why the American people question this administration’s commitment to the rule of law.”
And, of course:
In response to Boehner, [Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne] Peters compared the situation to Election Day, when voters who are in line when the polls close are still allowed to cast their ballot.
“The law is the law. Consumers need to know the deadline is March 31,” she said. “But just like on Election Day, if you are in line when we close, you get to enroll. We’re experiencing near-record volume and the site, and we’re not going to turn people away who tried and couldn’t complete their enrollment. This is about helping people who want to get health insurance.”
Peters noted that a similar extension was offered under the Bush administration in 2006 for the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Checkmate.
