President Barack Obama said Thursday in an interview with NBC News that he was "sorry" Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep, but vowed to work with those who are finding themselves in a 'tough situation,' FoxNews.com reported.
"I am sorry that [those losing their health insurance plans] are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me. We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this," Obama said.
The White House, beset by technical glitches with the HealthCare.Gov web site and the recent tweaking of his promise that Americans who like their health plans would be able to keep it, has not ruled out the option of delaying the individual mandate option, news reports said.
"An apology is certainly in order, but what Americans want to hear is that the president is going to keep his promise," said House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday evening after Obama's interview aired on NBC.
A bi-partisan bill introduced by Virginia Democrat Sentor Joe Manchin and Republican Mark Kirk addressed the need to reform the healthcare bill.
"We need to start working together to fix this law and make it work so that all Americans have access to affordable and reliable health care coverage. We can start with a one-year delay of the individual mandate to eliminate penalty fees if individuals choose to not enroll for a health care plan in 2014. This common sense proposal simply allows Americans to take more time to browse and explore their options, making 2014 a true transition year," Manchin said in a statement.
The bill said that delaying the who implementation of the healthcare law would be not be "responsible" but Congress should strive for "commonsense reforms," news reports said.
"Nevertheless, it is important to recognize when a new program is not meeting the high standards that the American people expect. So far, the federal healthcare exchanges have failed, and we must deliver a better product," the bill read.
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