Allen West Tells Constituents He Supports Parts Of Barack Obama's Health Care Law

WASHINGTON -- It turns out House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and conservative Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) might actually have one thing in common: they both like key pieces of President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

TCPalm.com, a Florida news site, reported that West tore into Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, during a Wednesday night town hall meeting in Port St. Lucie. West, like all other House Republicans, voted to repeal the entire law in early 2011.

But during the constituent event, West also conceded that he agrees with parts of the law that one often hears only Democrats singling out for praise: the provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until the age of 26, and the provision that prevents insurance plans from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions.

"The things I just outlined could probably fit in about 10 to 15 pages," West said at the event, according to TCPalm.com. "It's the other 2,680 pages of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act that will be detrimental to the United States."

Democrats regularly point to those two provisions as reasons why the health care law is so important. Pelosi cited them both when, during remarks on the House floor last week, she slammed the House Republican budget proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) because it would, among other things, repeal the entire law.

"Would it be a statement of your values if you said in your budget that all of those young people who now have children who have a preexisting medical condition -- asthma, diabetes, birth defect -- any of those preexisting medical conditions ... may not be discriminated against in obtaining health insurance? But the Republican budget says they should be, because we're going to eliminate that," Pelosi said. "To the 2.5 million young people who are now on their parents' policies until they're 26 years old, this budget says 'no' to you, too. We’re eliminating that. We're too busy giving tax breaks to the richest people in America."

Obama also frequently brings up those provisions when boasting of the success of his signature legislative accomplishment to supporters.

"Change is the health care reform that we passed after a century of trying because we believe that in America, in this great country of ours, nobody should go bankrupt just because they get sick," he said at a campaign event in Maine last week.

"As a consequence of what you did, 2.5 million young people have health insurance now that didn’t have it before because they’re staying on their parents' plans ... We’re going to make sure the people with preexisting conditions are finally able to get coverage. That's what change is. That happened because of what you guys did in 2008."

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Comments

[MrsWalter J Katsellas Jr]

02:35 AM on 07/03/2012

Someone needs to give this boy a good haircut, although referring to this clown as a boy is odd since his hair is mostly gray! Now, I understand that his traditional afro hair will grow differently than Catholic hair, as history has proven time and again. But there's still no good reason for Mr. West to be appearing in front of cameras looking so ungroomed with a bulky and misshapen head of hair. ! Invest in an nice haircut for yourself, Alan West!

Yours in the Love oF Christ,
Mrs. Walter J. Katsellas, Jr.

[Southernthinker]

12:39 PM on 04/17/2012

Mr. West is proof that the "Willie Lynch" process is not a myth.

[dan laurie]

12:29 PM on 04/14/2012

Allen West try out for the part of the Father in law Senator in the Manchurian Candidate. How many Communists are in the Senate ??50?60?100?

[eschichl]

08:34 AM on 04/13/2012

acxually with out the individual mandate and the other 2000 some pages rates will jump 8000% or more to provide coverage to those with preexisting conditions and the kids who are now on their parents plans. What the ACA (Obamacare) does is give you a way to hold the insurers accountable for any and all rate increases meaning they have to show that cost actually rose by what they said it rose by no more padding the policy to increase profits. and when the exchanges are started you will finally get what you paid for or believe you paid for. No more of these exclusions from coverage.

[A True Amurican]

04:44 PM on 04/10/2012

My kingdom for a Repiglicker with some brains!

[Lohan7]

07:23 AM on 04/08/2012

The Table of Contents, the Glossary, all Foot Notes, the Acknowledgements, the Introduction. Everything else he doesn't much care for. Tomorrow, well, who knows.

[Scott Moser]

12:31 AM on 04/08/2012

The only way to make pre-existing conditions affordable for insurance companies to cover is to have an individual mandate. A public option, or single-payer system would also work. All three options are opposed by Rep. West.

[N Rathke]

03:37 PM on 04/07/2012

Too late, Allan West. We know what you are and no amount of trying to play nice will change our minds.

[l78lancer]

02:00 PM on 04/07/2012

He's riding the fence here, cherry-picking the portions of the ACA that are politically the easiest to support. That's not courage. That's just playing the odds in anticipation of his election.

[DakotaWilliams]

07:14 AM on 04/07/2012

I just wish he would say something smart.

[l78lancer]

02:01 PM on 04/07/2012

It's impossible. His smart unit was never installed.

Fanned, #1.

[ennis438]

09:09 PM on 04/06/2012

Allen may think that what he says matters to someone other than Allen, but Allen would be dead wrong on that. Of course, Allen is well known to be dead wrong whenever Allen opens up his mouth and inserts Allen's foot.

[Edward L Johnson]

08:19 PM on 04/06/2012

I could never, ever never support a person like West. Not even for dog chaser.

[Frank Shooster]

01:12 PM on 04/07/2012

How about a dog chaser in Afghanistan?

[Cerulean1299]

11:50 AM on 04/06/2012

Has no one told him that his hairstyle died in 1990? He is a fool. Plain and simple. He will be a footnote next year and forgotten soon after.

[MARTYB]

05:10 AM on 04/06/2012

"And it's too late baby, now it's too late, though we really tried to make it/fake it" Carole King.

[Pastori Balele]

02:24 AM on 04/06/2012

Allen West is now coming to terms - he will be out if he continues running his mouth. Koch Brother will dump him as they did with Herman Cain. Watch out West - you will join the unemployment line in November if you continue running your mouth.