LANSING – U.S. Rep. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township was the lone Democrat from Michigan to vote Friday for a Republican bill that would allow existing health insurance plans to remain for sale for another year in response to complaints about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act leading to the cancellation of policies.
Peters’ vote comes at a time when he is running for the U.S. Senate in a race drawing increasing national interest and the Affordable Care Act is under major criticism. The launch of the website, where persons in states without their own exchanges can purchase individual insurance, has been a disaster. President Barack Obama has been forced to apologize and pull back after insurers began cancelling hundreds of thousands of bare-bones policies that lack the minimum coverage required under the law, despite Obama’s promise that people who liked their existing coverage could keep it.
Peters also made that pledge of keeping one’s coverage, reported in a 2009 Detroit Free Press story.
He was one of 39 Democrats to vote for the bill, which the Democratic-led U.S. Senate has signaled it will not take up.
“Today’s bipartisan vote confirms the steps the president is taking to fix problems families have been facing regarding canceled policies,” Peters said in a statement. “In passing a one-year extension to temporarily grandfather in health care plans, I believe that people need to have as much information as possible about their coverage, and I support the president’s decision to require insurers to disclose limitations with these plans and better coverage that could be available. There is no such thing as a perfect law, and I am heartened to support a bipartisan effort to improve the Affordable Care Act instead of countless repeal votes to destroy it.”
But Republicans, who increasingly have been issuing news releases reminding Peters of his pledge, said Peters was just trying to protect himself politically.
“Gary Peters has once again flipped on Michigan families,” said Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostak in a statement. “In September, Peters voted against protecting Michiganders from Obamacare, but has once again shifted with the political winds. Michigan families see his vote for what it is – a thinly veiled attempt to protect his Senate bid.”
Peters’ presumptive Republican opponent, former Secretary of State Terri Land, said in a statement that the failures of the health care law also reflect poor customer service.
“In 2009, Congressman Peters promised voters at an event in Southfield ‘If you’re covered and you like your insurance, you can keep it.’ Now, President Obama is again suggesting another delay for some,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that this was a bad law which was not ready to be implemented in the first place, and now the decision to keep moving forward, despite numerous warnings, is hurting Michigan families.”
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