Rep. Barrow: Individual mandate 'not ready to roll out'

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Rep. Barrow: Individual mandate 'not ready to roll out'

Growing calls to delay ObamaCare provision

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," October 29, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, the problems are piling up, and now so, too, the calls to hold it up, not just from Republicans, but from some Democrats. Georgia Democratic Congressman John Barrow one of them.

Congressman, welcome.

You're particularly emphasizing it's the individual mandate that needs to be pushed back a bit, right?

REP. JOHN BARROW, D-GA.: Well, thank you for having me, Neil.

Yes, I'm no Johnny-come-lately to this issue. I voted against the bill for many reasons, including the burdens of the individual mandate. But I have also been a sponsor of the legislation to repeal or delay the individual mandate.

The problems with the rollout of the exchanges is one more compelling reason why we need to delay the implementation of the individual mandate.

CAVUTO: All right. How long would you delay it?

BARROW: Well, as long as necessary, if necessary, up to a year.

The point is, we have seen the administration give businesses a one-year break on the penalties for the employer mandate. If we can do it for the employers, I think there's no reason why we couldn't do it for individuals all across the country as well.

CAVUTO: Do you think, sir, that the reluctance on the part of the administration so far to do as you recommend is the idea that that is what Republicans were really arguing about when we had the shutdown and the debt brinksmanship, and that to suddenly do a 180 and go ahead and do that, it looks like he is caving into them?

BARROW: Well, each side is -- is playing this game of blaming the other...

CAVUTO: Right. Right.

BARROW: ... and pointing fingers.

But the bottom -- the bottom line is, this thing is not ready to roll out and there's no way we can impose this mandate on folks if the only mechanism of folks to enroll just isn't ready yet.

CAVUTO: So, Congressman, let me get your reaction as well to a lot of your prominent Democratic colleagues, including those within the administration, who say, well, truth be told, we did think there was a possibility that some would lose their coverage, some might end up paying more for that coverage.

I don't remember it being sold that way. Now, you said you were against this, voted against this, concerned about it. But many of your Democratic colleagues were for this gung-ho, and never, ever raised that possibility. Do you think, in retrospect, had they done so, this thing would have even passed?

BARROW: Absolutely.

I heard the discussion before, and one of the patterns we see over and over again in Washington, and both sides are guilty of this, is over -- overpromising and underdelivering. In this case, the Democrats were overpromising what this thing was going to do. And the other side is guilty of overdramatizing the results.

I do know that it was going to have a huge impact on folks in the individual market. It was one of the reason why I voted against the bill. The idea that you are no longer going to be able to low-cost, low-benefits insurance, and everybody is going to have to trade up and get much more expensive and much more extensive coverage may sound good to policy-makers, but it's going to result in a lot of sticker shock to folks, who are no longer going to have the kind of insurance they had.

It would have been better for the administration and folks pushing this bill to explain the fine print in the bill so that folks wouldn't be surprised now about things that have been in it from the very beginning.

CAVUTO: Do you think this thing is falling apart?

BARROW: Well, this is just one more thing we need to fix. There's no -- no question about it.

There are things like the employer mandate, the individual mandate, the IPAB provision. There are lot of things in there that need to be repealed and fixed. This is just one more huge thing that needs to be fixed.

CAVUTO: Kathleen Sebelius testifying before a committee you're on, and -- and a lot of your colleagues are saying, she should go, she should resign.

Should she?

BARROW: She is going face an awful lot of frustrated members of Congress tomorrow because the folks we represent are frustrated as hell by this.

Folks are sick and tired of folks who are overpromising and underdelivering, and the promises made about this exchange is just the latest in a whole long string of overpromises.

CAVUTO: Congressman Barrow, thank you, sir, very much.

BARROW: Thank you, Neil.

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