By Gladys Biglor

Millions of Americans woke up to President Barack Obama’s big lie when they received medical insurance cancellation notices.

In a speech given on June 15, 2009, at the annual conference of the American Medical Association, the president told Americans, “We will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. … No one is talking about taking that away from you.”

Many Americans believed him then re-elected him.

Now the president is telling Americans he’ll allow them to keep their plans through 2014 even though they’re considered “substandard” under the law.

The next day, we’re told by Laura Cali, Oregon insurance commissioner, the same, even though several states have rejected the proposal, including several politically “blue” states. Washington state’s commissioner decided allowing extensions would not be good for Washingtonians. Other state commissioners fear allowing extensions would destabilize the industry, raise premiums even higher and layer on additional complexity on the already complex web of Obamacare regulations.

Even Oregon’s insurance commissioner carefully chose her words. “If an insurer chooses to offer extensions, it will need to notify the Oregon Insurance Division and contact customers directly about their options,” she said. And then she told them what additional regulations they would have to adhere to.

So let me get this straight.

The law mandates insurance companies provide only health care policies meeting Affordable Care Act standards. Obama now tells those same companies to continue selling legally questionable policies to Americans.

So here are two questions:

First, who’s at risk or legally liable if a medical procedure goes wrong or an expensive medical procedure is necessary when the old extended plan does not meet ACA? Will it be the patient who agreed to renew their (“substandard”) policy, the doctor who performed the procedure and accepted the substandard insurance or the insurance company who “chose” to offer the substandard policy at the president’s directive?

Second, does the president really think Americans are so docile and stupid we can’t see that this is a purely political ploy that does nothing to fix the disaster that is Obamacare?

Wait — it gets worse. More pain lies ahead.

Remember the administration purposefully delayed the employer mandate (which will affect an even greater number of Americans) until after the 2014 mid-term elections.

Don’t forget polls consistently showed a majority of Americans rejected Obamacare from day one.

Republicans appear to have been right all along.

Conservatives warned us of the catastrophic effects this 2,700-page unfair, unaffordable, unworkable act would have on you, me, our families and our nation.

They first tried to make the bill better for Americans, but the Democrat-led House and Senate would have nothing to do with that. Next, they fought hard against it, knowing the bill would harm more Americans than it would help, damage our economy and diminish middle class jobs.

Americans are left with a law that appears to be whatever President Obama deems it to be, which changes on nearly a daily basis, and a “fix” that doesn’t fix anything — just kicks the can down the road.

Now Sen. Jeff Merkley tells us he didn’t understand that grandfather provisions were weak (resulting in millions of Americans losing their coverage).

Is that so?

If anyone should know the truth, I would think it would be Merkley, since he sat on the Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services and had direct input into the law, having drafted several sections giving his political supporters special exemptions.

So Obama’s big lie begs the question: What other lies has he told Americans? Will we ever be able to believe him? Can we ever believe Merkley, for that matter?

Supporters of the president and Merkley should consider the adage: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

— Gladys Biglor lives in Bend.