Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ) has been the loudest proponent of the Affordable Care Act in all of Arizona, traveling his district promoting the law, constantly supporting fairness, and claiming the moral high ground. Rep. Grijalva also voted for the ACA and hasn’t backed away one iota.
On November 1, 2013, Grijalva attended an Affordable Care Act community forum in Nogales, Arizona. The forum featured a presentation by Herb Schultz, Regional Director of the Department of Health and Human Services, who made the unsubstantiated claim that the Affordable Care Act is expanding health care coverage for Arizonans, ensuring consumer protections, improving coverage quality and lowering costs.
Just last week, Arizonans testified at a congressional field hearing that they were either losing their insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or they would no longer be able to afford it.
Grijalva claimed he would immediately sign up on the exchanges at healthcare.gov.
“I was talking to someone today,” said Rep. Grijalva. “Five minutes to get on. Twenty minutes to finish her process; she is enrolled. And I will be attempting that feat sometime this week. I’m glad to do it because I think members of Congress need to go on this exchange, be part of this market place and show by example that this is a healthcare that is good enough for us, then it is good enough for the American people. There shouldn’t be any privilege associated with the healthcare I receive and the healthcare that the lady was telling me about that took her twenty-five minutes to get it done.”
Over two weeks later, Grijalva still had not signed up and told attendees at the November 26, ACA/LGBTQ community forum that he had browsed the plans.
Grijalva has refused two requests for an answer as to whether he has successfully picked a plan he found while browsing and signed up for it.
Many of his constituents say that Grijalva should say whether he has actually signed up and is willing to live under the same laws that he has forced upon them. They believe that if he is not, then he is proof that there is a two-tier system with Congress being above the American people.