#NCSEN: Why won't @SenatorHagan give direct answers to Qs about #Obamacare?

Hagan repeal Obamacare — Tea Party member Judy Carter pickets Sen. Kay Hagan’s local office in Greensboro against Obamacare. Photo by Examiner.com’s Matt Maggio.

Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) officially filed for re-election yesterday at the State Board of Elections here, but according to News and Observer journalist John Frank, she wasn’t too keen on answering specific questions about Obamacare:

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, who has been under fire from conservatives over the federal health care law, refused on Monday to answer questions about what she knew about the laws limits.

Like President Barack Obama, Hagan said the Affordable Care Act would allow North Carolinians to keep their existing insurance plans if they liked them. The pledge proved false – and earned Obama PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year honors.

But the details about what Hagan knew about the law’s limits and when she learned it remains unclear. Asked about it again Monday at a press conference in Raleigh, after she made her re-election bid official at the State Board of Elections, Hagan avoided the question.

Pressed on the question two more times as reporters followed her outside to the parking lot, Hagan did not answer. She offered this explanation without further details: “it wasn’t clear that insurance companies were selling substandard policies.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurer, responded by saying Hagan’s comments “are simply not true and she should know better.” Company spokesman Lew Borman said the insurer notified customers that they could keep a grandfathered plan. Customers were also given an opportunity to return to a grandfathered plan, Borman said.

“The fact is that every step along the way, we have taken every available opportunity to make sure our customers understood the impacts of the ACA and grandfathering,” Borman said by email. “We have been very open with our customers about the cost and benefits of the ACA. It’s unfortunate that Senator Hagan has not done the same.”

Indeed. And she’ll continue to dodge and weave on the issue of Obamacare throughout this critical election year because she knows it’s the one issue that can sink her campaign like no other. Don’t forget – she didn’t join the President on a recent trip he made here to NC because he’s become as toxic as the healthcare law he shoved through Congress. America Rising has three videos of Hagan avoiding direct answers to questions about what she knew and when she knew it on people losing their health insurance plans under Obamacare. Here’s one of them:

Just for the record – close to 500,000 North Carolinians lost their health care plans thanks to Senator Hagan’s vote in favor of Obamacare. And by the way, did you know she was instrumental in helping draft the Affordable Care Act legislation?

Another issue she dodged yesterday, according to Frank, were questions surrounding the current disarray of the NC Democrat party under the leadership of Chairman Randy Voller, which I wrote about here in a post noting the state party’s attempt to bring Ben Chavis, who has a disturbing history of both sexual harassment and anti-Semitism – into the fold as “executive director.” The Carolina Review has much more on the Voller issue here, and quotes Voller as saying on a recent talk show as admitting to paying $9,000 from party funds to Chavis for a speaking engagement.

@SenatorHagan dodged 2 big Qs today: When she knew #ACA would cancel plans and #NCDP's Voller. Check Dome later for more. #ncpol #ncsen

— John Frank (@ByJohnFrank) February 24, 2014

As I’ve said before, Ms. Hagan can run from her once-enthusiastic support of Obamacare, and her party’s woes at the state level here, but she cannot hide. You know you’ve got problems when media outlets that are normally friendly to Democrats start demanding answers to uncomfortable but necessary-to-ask questions …

Joy says:

February 25, 2014 at 12:10 pm

We need to vote all of the Democrats who voted to pass Obamacare and lied to the American people about our being able to keep our old healthcare plans, our doctors, and our costs would go down $2,500 when the Administration published in its Federal regulations in June 2010 that none of these claims were true.

We must insist on repealing Obamacare like earlier generations of Americans insisted on the repeal of Prohibition. Both were passed by overzealous Progressives who crammed both down the throats of Americans. Obamacare was never about healthcare; it was always about control. Unfortunately, the worse of Obamacare is still to come.