From Congressman Steve Stockman

"Fake ObamaCare enrollee accepts State of the Union invitation"

Oct. 9

Press Release

'Now when Obama speaks about ObamaCare the media have someone they can cut to...I encourage Obama to acknowledge him.'

Chad Henderson, the Tennessee Obama activist who misled reporters about his supposed success in buying an ObamaCare policy, tells The Daily Caller's Chuck Ross he has accepted Congressman Steve Stockman's invitation to be his guest at January's State of the Union Address.

"I look forward to giving Chad the opportunity to attend the State of the Union Address. Now when President Obama speaks about ObamaCare the media will have someone they can cut to," said Stockman. "I encourage the President to acknowledge him and his story."

After a nationwide search for one person who had benefitted from ObamaCare turned up nothing, the national news media made Henderson a celebrity last week by rushing to report claims he successfully purchased an ObamaCare policy. They did not reveal he was actually an activist for Obama's "Organizing for America" political group.

Most of the mainstream media also failed to later report his father's admission Chad never actually purchased a plan. Few, if any, media outlets retracted the false stories.

Henderson's original story was broken by the Chattanooga Times Free-Press, which earlier this year fired an editor for a headline mocking Obama.

Henderson also claims to make a below-poverty income, but last year donated $1,000 to Obama election efforts.

Analysis by the Cato Institute finds had Henderson actually signed up as he claimed he would be paying 400 percent more for an ObamaCare policy than he could find in the private market. After three hours of trying Henderson claimed he bought a policy that costs $175 a month, or 18 percent of his claimed income.

"Compare that to what Chad could have paid if he bought one of the pre-Obamacare plans still available on eHealthInsurance.com until December 31," Cato Institute's director of health policy studies Michael Cannon found.

"The cheapest such plan for someone meeting Chad's profile is just $44.72 - as little as 5 percent of his annual income and about one-quarter of his Obamacare premium."