Joe Biden says nobody lost their private insurance under Obamacare, which was rated the ‘lie of the year’ by fact-checkers

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed that nobody lost their private health insurance under Obamacare during the debate, a claim viewers pointed out wasn’t backed up by facts.

“The reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination was I support private insurance,” Biden said when questioned on whether he supported socialized medicine. “That’s why … not one single person with private insurance would lose their insurance under my plan, nor did they under Obamacare. They did not lose their insurance unless they chose they wanted to go to something else.”

“FACT CHECK: Biden spewed lies about ‘nobody’ losing health insurance under Obamacare. BULLSHIT. Our family had FOUR individual market health insurance plans CANCELED because of Obamacare. Millions like us lost theirs, too,” responded conservative commentator Michelle Malkin on Twitter.

During Biden’s term as vice president, former President Barack Obama promised that under the Affordable Care Act, nobody would lose their current healthcare plan if they are happy with it.

“If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it,” Obama promised.

But in 2013, Politifact rated it the “lie of the year.”

“So this fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong,” Politifact wrote at the time.

“PolitiFact has named ‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,’ the Lie of the Year for 2013,” Politifact continued. “Readers in a separate online poll overwhelmingly agreed with the choice.”

President Trump challenged Biden on healthcare during the debate, claiming that Biden would eliminate private insurance and cause many people to lose their plans.

“We have 180 million people out there that have great private healthcare, far more than we’re talking about with Obamacare,” Trump said. “Joe Biden is going to terminate all of those policies. These are people that love their healthcare. People that have been successful. Middle-income people.”

“They have 180 million plans … under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine … He won’t even have choice, they want to terminate 180 million plans,” Trump continued.

“What I am going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option, become Bidencare,” Biden countered. “Public option is an option that says that if you, in fact, do not have the wherewithal … if you qualify for Medicaid, and you do not have the wherewithal, then your state to get Medicaid, then you’re automatically enrolled, providing competition for insurance companies.”