CNN's Gupta Compares ObamaCare Plans to 'Ferrari'
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta cast President Obama's "you can keep your
health care plan" lie as something much more innocent. On Tuesday's Piers Morgan Live, he framed it as a messaging problem rather than a lie, and said the new ObamaCare plans were like a "Ferrari."
"I think with regard to this idea of keeping the plans, I think
that this is another example of the message really having been not
properly given," he admitted. Gupta then switched to explaining benefits of ObamaCare and noted what the White House should have told the millions of Americans who stood to lose their health insurance.
[Video below. Audio here.]
Gupta explained why some should be glad to lose their health plans:
"You know, Piers, you and I have talked about this before after I interviewed Secretary Sebelius, you know, the number one cause of bankruptcy in United States is medical bills. And a large part of that is because there are really bad plans out there."
And he compared ObamaCare to a 'Ferrari':
"But we have regulations for cars that are unsafe. People say, 'I want to keep my Pinto. I don't want to be forced to buy a Ferrari.' Pintos were the cars that, you know, caught on fire if they got rear ended. Those weren't safe cars. And, you know, if they want to keep that analogy going there are plans out there that are just aren't very good plans."
Gupta said the same thing two weeks ago, that ObamaCare nixing millions of health plans just "hasn't been explained very well." It wasn't a "lie" or a "false promise," but poor messaging. In 2009, Gupta was a top candidate to be Obama's Surgeon General. That might explain his White House reasoning.
Below is a transcript of the segment, which aired on Piers Morgan Live on November 12 at 9:14 p.m. EST:
PIERS MORGAN: And let me turn just briefly for a minute to ObamaCare.
President Clinton today came out with a pretty striking criticism of
President Obama, let's listen to what he had to say.
(Video Clip)
BILL CLINTON, former U.S. president: I personally believe even if it
takes a change in the law, the President should honor the commitment the
federal government made to those people and let them keep what they
got.
(End Video Clip)
MORGAN: Sanjay, we know that the take-up on ObamaCare has been
extremely low. The White House has now conceded when the numbers are
published they will be very low. We now have President Clinton really
directly challenging President Obama to – if it means changing the law,
changing the law to keep his word about if you wanted to keep your plan
or your doctor you could. This is turning into a huge mess, isn't it?
GUPTA: Yeah, I think there's no two ways about that. You know, I think with regard to this idea of keeping
the plans, I think that this is another example of the message really
having been not properly given. And you know, we talk about the specific
thing that if you have your insurance you can keep it. As it turns out
as you know, as President Clinton said that's not true. You know, Piers,
you and I have talked about this before, after I interviewed Secretary
Sebelius, you know, the number one cause of bankruptcy in United States
is medical bills.
And a large part of that is because there are really bad plans out
there. I mean, I think this is a little bit of a red herring and if you
look at the numbers this is a relatively small percentage of the
population that we're talking about that fits into this idea that they
have plans, they want to keep them because they are buying insurance
already in the individual market. But we have regulations for cars that
are unsafe. People say, "I want to keep my Pinto. I don't want to be
forced to buy a Ferrari."
Pintos were the cars that, you know, caught on fire if they got rear
ended. Those weren't safe cars. And, you know, if they want to keep that
analogy going there are plans out there that are just aren't very good
plans but again, to the point that you asked, I mean the promise was
that you could keep your plan if you had it and you were happy with it.
And I think what that's what President Clinton was addressing.
— Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matt Hadro on Twitter.
