A day after Congressman Blunt’s spokesman tried to walk back video footage of the DC insider telling an audience of health care professionals in Springfield that he’s AGAINST stopping insurance companies from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, Congressman Blunt is doubling down on his support for barring Missourians with preexisting conditions from getting health care. Congressman Blunt’s spokesman told the Kansas City Star yesterday that the DC insider “has always supported coverage of adults with preexisting conditions,” despite the video footage which proves otherwise. This morning however, Congressman Blunt went on Allman in the Morning and responded to the flap by saying “actually I thought that clip was right on target, to tell you the truth.”
“By doubling down on his support for barring Missourians with preexisting conditions from gaining access to health care, Congressman Roy Blunt showed once and for all he represents the very worst of Washington,” said Deirdre Murphy, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Whether it is his all too constant DC Doubletalk, his never-ending support for insurance companies, or his long standing record of sticking it to the middle class, Congressman Roy Blunt is simply wrong for Missouri families.”
Washington insider Congressman Blunt has a record of sticking it to the middle class. Blunt rubberstamped the disastrous policies put into place by former President George W. Bush that protected Wall Street and exploded the federal deficit. And now he continues to stand in the way of commonsense efforts to jumpstart job creation. The people of Missouri can thank Blunt for thousands of lost jobs, tax credits for corporations that move their jobs overseas, and a huge trade imbalance. Congressman Blunt's record is so disastrous that even Republicans remain unimpressed with Congressman Blunt, who has failed to crack 50% against his main primary challenger, Chuck Purgason, who has steadily been gaining ground with Republican voters.
Congressman Blunt on KFTK with Jamie Allman April 14, 2010
Allman: Congressman Roy Blunt, how are you buddy?
Blunt: Hey Jamie, it’s good to be with you this morning, and actually I thought that clip was right on target to tell you the truth. If you look at RoyBlunt.com, you’ll see the dozen bills that I sponsored for real healthcare reform that treat people fairly, that look to competition, that make insurance companies work harder to get your business, but that discussion is exactly what it is. People will figure out quickly how to game this system, and it's not very complicated, and people are really smart, and they're going to figure out that this is just one of many weaknesses in this bill. Remember Nancy Pelosi famously said, “we’ll know what’s in the bill after we pass it.” And the more people look at this bill, the more they look at the unbelievable cost, and the ways that it will actually raise the cost of insurance for everybody. And I think we’ll wind up with more people uninsured most of the time. They’re going to decide they like it even less than they think they like it now.
Allman: Ya.
Blunt: And so, we’ve had a lot of discussions, a lot of roundtables. Every business person who provides insurance, frankly, I haven't been in a discussion everybody didn't quickly understand that if the penalty is less than the cost of monthly insurance, and you can get insurance whenever you want to at the price everybody else pays, a lot of people decide that it's smarter for them and their family if they just pay the penalty until somebody, until they need to go to the hospital. In fact, one hospital in Missouri has suggested to me only half way in jest, that they might have to put the insurance forms in the ambulance, so you can just sign up for insurance on your way to the hospital, and by the way, when you do that under this bill, you get insurance for the same price that everybody else has been paying who's had insurance all along."
Allman: Ya Congressman Blunt, though, you know, as I pointed out earlier, and right after Obamacare passed, I said the spider web that has been created by Obamacare is this, you guys wander into it because all that repealing is going to be now is taking gifts away, that are perceived gifts to the American public, one of them this preexisting conditions deal. And from your standpoint as a practical standpoint, yes, it’s wrong on down the line because of it’s impact on, well, people who are already insured, and but as a principle matter, as a matter of principle, the government has no business dictating who a company covers and who they don’t cover. I mean bottom line is that. Somebody called in earlier and said, “well, we shouldn’t really pursue that because it’s not a big deal and it’s going to make us look bad,” and I go, “well, you’re either going to pursue it wholly or you’re not going to pursue it at all. You’re either going to stand up for liberty, or you’re not going to stand up for liberty.”
Blunt: Well, I think that’s right, Jamie, and of course that’s one of the jobs of Allman in the Morning to point out to people the, what really happens here as opposed to what the President and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are saying is going to happen. I mean when the President’s been saying day after day now as he’s been out talking about this healthcare bill, “this is only the first step”. Well, what do you think is the blank that he’s hoping his supporters fill in that blank with, and (it’s) “this is only the first step, to government-run healthcare” because it’s going to make the system work so inefficiently and so ineffectively that the system will collapse, and it will start with people not buying insurance until their doctors told them they have to have it and they have to have it immediately. This has happened, this happens in Massachusetts now. It’s the big problem with the Massachusetts system. They have a must-insure policy, and I think they have a minimum of like 3 months, is the minimum amount of time you can buy insurance, and lots of people only buy insurance for the 3 months that they’re, that they know they’re going to be in the hospital, they know they’re going to have a procedure, or they know they’re going to have some expense. And obviously, that drives up the cost of insurance for everyone. But you know, I’ve been an advocate of letting more people into the risk pools, certainly of portability, of everything you need to do to treat people fairly, but this bill will not do that, and it certainly won’t treat people fairly who continue to buy their insurance all the time in case they need it because other people will be just paying the penalty until they need it, and this is not exactly rocket-science and people are smart, and they will quickly figure this out.
Allman: Well, stay with it Congressman, even though you’re going to be criticized and picked on for this, and treated like you’re some kind of scrooge, but reality is reality, and when you mention Massachusetts by the way, you’re absolutely right. More people are covered in Massachusetts, but premiums in Massachusetts for most people have gone up 30-40% which is unbelievable. So.
Blunt: Right.
Allman: RoyBlunt.com. We appreciate you sticking to it. And we’ll talk to you again whenever you feel like it, Congressman Blunt.
Blunt: I will stick to it and thank you for all you’re doing every day my friend. I’ll see you soon.
Allman: Alright, you take care now.
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