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 [1].]

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 [2]." It wasn't a "lie" or a "false promise," but poor messaging. In 2009, Gupta was a top candidate [3] 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.