"Scandal"-manufacturer Darrel Issa (R-CA) was in Texas Monday,
holding a field hearing on health insurance navigators—the people helping others sign up for insurance—and how dangerous and nefarious these people are and how they should be subject to background checks and fingerprinting. Not that Issa is all that concerned with the people of Texas getting ripped off. No, he's concerned about the people of Texas—the state with the most uninsured people in the nation—signing up for Obamacare and helping to make the law a success.
That's what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius pointed out in an op-ed in the Dallas News.
What opponents of the new law could not do legislatively, at the ballot box, or even by shutting down the federal government, they’re now trying to do through other means. Case in point is Monday’s congressional hearing in Dallas, designed to stifle, intimidate and impugn the reputation of people who have been working hard to help their fellow Texans get covered. [...]
In Texas, their work is particularly important. Nearly one in four Texans is uninsured: 4.9 million in all, 1.1 million in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And there are more uninsured children in Texas than in any other state.
Navigators and other assisters are working to help these folks get covered so they’ll no longer have to forgo cholesterol and cancer screenings, risk bankruptcy, or have to choose between putting food on the table and taking their kids to the doctor.
Through the Marketplace, a Dallas family earning $50,000 per year can obtain affordable coverage for as little as $26 per month. And there is choice and competition that quite simply were not available to Texans before the Affordable Care Act. In North Texas alone, there are 43 qualified health plans offered on the Marketplace.
The last thing Issa wants to happen is to have that middle class American family get affordable health insurance and be glad about it.