A day after Georgia's Republican insurance commissioner Ralph Hudgens was criticized for "out-of-touch" remarks on pre-existing medical conditions, spokesman Glenn Allen revealed that Hudgens has a pre-existing condition of his own.
Allen told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that Hudgens has gone in for regular checkups following surgery for prostate cancer more than a decade ago.
“He fully understands why it’s not somebody’s fault (he or she) has a pre-existing condition, because he has one,” Allen said.
Hudgens was forced to swallow his words Wednesday after the Georgia Democratic Party circulated footage of him comparing pre-existing conditions to at-fault car wrecks. Making the case against Obamacare's requirement that insurers accept those with pre-existing conditions, Hudgens suggested that such conditions were the fault of those who have them, in the way a car accident is the driver's fault.
"Say you’re going along and you have a wreck. And it’s your fault. Well, a pre-existing condition would be then you calling up your insurance agent and saying, ‘I would like to get collision insurance coverage on my car,'" Hudgens explained.
State Democrats accused Hudgens of being out of touch. After the criticism, Hudgens admitted to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal that he'd made a "really poor analogy."
“I’ve had family members, I’ve had friends … who have pre-existing conditions,” he told the paper. “It’s not the person’s fault they have a pre-existing condition.”
Still, Hudgens is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act. In August, he told a group of Republicans that he was doing "everything in [his] power to be an obstructionist.”
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