Rising Obamacare premiums fuel Pence opposition

TOLEDO, Ohio (WISH) – Mike Pence began fighting against Obamacare when he was in Congress.

As governor he refused to create an Indiana exchange forcing Obamacare recipients here to use the federal marketplace.

He’s now fighting it as a candidate for vice president.

The pitch to do away with Obamacare is not a new element in Mike Pence’s campaign speech but he’s got new material to go with it because of figures just released that show health insurance premiums increasing by an average of 27 percent under Obamacare.

Governor Pence is hitting that hard in three Ohio stops Tuesday including one near Toledo where he ran down the steps of his airplane and then ran all the way to the stage inside an airport hangar.

Ironically, Obamacare rates in Ohio are only going up an average of 13 percent, and that’s according to information that’s being distributed by the Trump campaign.

That doesn’t affect the Pence message.

“I’m not making this up,” he said. “President Obama last week compared Obamacare to the Samsung Galaxy 7 phones that have spontaneously burst into flames.”

He then read an Obama quote. “When one of these companies comes out with a new smart phone and it has a few bugs what do they do? They fix it, they upgrade it, unless it catches fire, then they pull it off the market. Well what a coincidence Mr. President because that’s exactly what we’re gonna do with Obamacare.”

Governor Pence also accused the media of collusion with the Clinton campaign and he mentioned one reporter by name.

He also made an appeal to supporters to convince their Republican friends to come home and vote for the Trump-Pence ticket.

And then he told them to leave the rally and take part in early voting before going home.