Corker, Alexander back 'If You Like It You Can Keep It' health insurance bill

photo Bob Corker, from left, Lamar Alexander
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker have joined other lawmakers in calling on the Obama administration to take the president's words - "If you like your plan you can keep it" - and put them into law.

"Those are the president's words in 2009," said Alexander, R-Tenn., at a hearing Tuesday about the rollout of Obamacare, adding that they're still on the White House website. Meanwhile, thousands of people nationwide who hold health insurance policies that don't meet the minimum requirements of the Affordable Care Act are being notified that they'll need to get new policies that do comply.

Instead, Alexander said to Marilyn Tavvener, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the "If You Like Your Health Care Plan You Can Keep It Act" should be made law.

The bill, introduced by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., seeks to extend grandfathered status to any health plan in effect from the date the Affordable Care Act was enacted through Dec. 31 to give Americans the option of keeping their current health plan.

Corker, R-Tenn., announced Monday that he had joined 37 other Republican senators to co-sponsor the bill.

"A couple in Tennessee contacted me last week to tell me the policy they've enjoyed for five years - as self-employed missionaries - is being cancelled because it doesn't meet the standards of Obamacare," Corker said in a released statement. Corker said the Hixson couple, Ronnie and Sandy Yother, are facing losing their health coverage in January despite failed efforts to enroll in a new plan on the federal exchange.

Corker said the Yothers' story is "not unique."

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