Facts About the Lie that “Obama Amended, Delayed or Repealed 19 components of Obamacare”

As I write this, the United States Government has been shutdown (unfunded) by Congress because a small faction in the House of Representatives wants to remove funding for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). These people, like Congressman Tom Graves of Georgia who spoke September 22, 2013 on ABC’s This Week, believe that the law is fatally flawed because “…since the election (2012) President Obama has amended, delayed or repealed 19 components of his very own law. So, if it’s so good for America why is he delaying it for his friends in big business?”

Following the mantra of never letting facts get in the way of a good rant, I will give Congressman Graves credit for getting the number of changes to the law since its passage correct, but he got pretty much everything else wrong. According the the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan think tank for Congress, there have been 14 public law and 5 administrative action changes to the ACA. That is, 14 of the changes were the result of Congressional, NOT Presidential action.  The other 5 were Executive Branch changes within the scope of the law.

So let’s look at some of the Congressional changes (attributed to President Obama) that were made that seem to upset Mr. Graves and his ilk so much:

  • TRICARE, TRICARE for Life, Health Care provided by the VA and the Nonappropriated Fund Health Benefits program will now constitute minimal essential health care coverage required by the ACA. Therefore, people using these health services are considered covered under the ACA.
  • Made a correction to the formula for calculating disaster-recovery based Medicaid federal matching funds in order to keep Federal monies flowing to Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina repairs. Without this change Louisiana would have had to pay back federal funds.
  • Directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to produce a study of the cost and processes of ACA implementation.
  • Directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a website with detailed information on the allocation and use of monies in the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was established and funded by the ACA.

There were more, but these were among the major changes. So what were the changes President Obama made to help “…his friends in big business?” How about:

  • State-based exchanges will not be required until 2015 to verify applicants information regarding possible employer coverage in order to determine eligibility for premium tax credits.  During 2014 the state exchanges may accept an applicant’s attestation without further verification.
  • Delayed until 2015 permitting states to establish a Basic Health Program in which States would contract with private sector and cooperative health plans to provide health insurance coverage for certain low-income individuals not eligible for the state’s Medicaid program.
  • Delayed until 2015 the requirement that employers with at least 50 full-time equivalent employees provide health coverage for their full-time workers or risk paying an IRS  penalty.

Thus, it appears that Congressman Graves got it partly right. All that Graves got right (and wrong) is at PolitiFact.

Look, I get it that people say things that might be wrong in the heat of political debate, but not correcting that wrongful statement afterwards is a failure of character. And, yet, that might explain why Congress’ approval rating is so low.