The chairwoman of the Democratic Party said Sunday that the failed implementation of Obamacare will not weigh heavily on the minds of voters in next year's elections nor will the cancellation of millions of current policies.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told CNN's "State of the Union" that Obamacare has brought "peace of mind" to many Americans worried that they might lose healthcare insurance, and shrugged off the cancellation of 300,000 insurance policies in her home state of Florida as a "transition."
The state's oldest health insurer, Florida Blue, notified customers last month the policies would be cancelled because they do not meet the new requirements.
Schultz said the "transition letter" means "they will have the opportunity to shop on the exchange and compare the plans," and that calling it a cancellation is a "distortion" because in some cases consumers might get a new plan with lower healthcare costs.
Wasserman said Democrats are willing to consider legislation to help those who want to keep their current plans, but are not willing to roll back Obamacare.
"We're not going backwards," Schultz said.
Host Candy Crowley asked Schultz if she believes Democrats will win in 2014 if they base their campaign on the successes of Obamacare.
"I think because Americans reject the tea party extremism, they want us to focus on creating jobs and working together and because…of the benefits of Obamacare, yes," Schultz said.
However, the chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus, challenged Schultz's statement and said the notification by Florida Blue was not "transition letters, these are cancellation letters."
"This issue is going to be toxic for the Democrats and believe me, we will tattoo it to their foreheads in 2014, we will run on it and they will lose because of it," Priebus said.
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