Manchin: Obamacare could face a ‘meltdown’

Sen. Joe Manchin had more warnings about Obamacare Sunday, when he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the system could be headed for a “complete meltdown” if people are dissatisfied.

After a disastrous October rollout of Healthcare.gov, Manchin called for a one year delay for the law’s individual mandate, which he repeated Sunday. “”Don’t say this is what you’ve got to buy, whether you like it or not, and you’re going to pay more even though you didn’t think you were,” he said.

More than a million people have signed up for insurance through federal and state exchanges, and individuals who sign up before December 23 will have insurance coverage as of January 1.

Manchin said that hypothetically, “If it’s so much more expensive than what we anticipated, and if the coverage is not as good as what we’ve had, you’ve got a complete meltdown at that time.”

While Manchin’s tepid support of President Obama’s signature legislation is not strategic – he won reelection in 2012 – others, like Lousiana Democrat Mary Landrieu, face tough reelection campaigns and are already being hammered. She has been the target of an ad released by conservative group Americans for Prospertiy for casting what it called “the deciding vote” for the law. 

Landrieu introduced a bill in the wake of the Healthcare.gov rollout that would have kept insurance companies from canceling policies that do not meet Obamacare’s basic standards for benefits. The bill would make it possible for insurers to continue to offer the sort of high-deductible, low-coverage plans that the law was designed to end.

Thirty nine House Democrats voted to support a similar bill introduced by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) many of them from battleground districts.