Late Thursday evening House Republicans put forth a proposal to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. They argue that it has not only increased healthcare costs and put Americans at risk of losing coverage, but also that it is dragging the economy down.
The Repeal of Obamacare Act is the GOP’s response to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the Constitutionality of Obamacare under the authority of the Congress to tax.
The new bill cites the following ten findings concerning Obamacare:
(1) President Obama promised the American people that if they liked their current health coverage, they could keep it. But even the Obama Administration admits that tens of millions of Americans are at risk of losing their health care coverage, including as many as 8 in 10 plans offered by small businesses.
(2) Despite projected spending of more than two trillion dollars over the next 10 years, cutting Medicare by more than one-half trillion dollars over
that period, and increasing taxes by over $800 billion dollars over that period, the law does not lower health care costs.(3) The law cuts more than one-half trillion dollars in Medicare and uses the funds to create a new entitlement program rather than to protect and strengthen the Medicare program.
(4) The law creates a 15-member, unelected Independent Payment Advisory Board that is empowered to make binding decisions regarding what treatments Medicare will cover and how much Medicare will pay for treatments solely to cut spending, restricting access to health care for seniors.
(5) The law and the more than 13,000 pages of related regulations issued before July 11, 2012, are causing great uncertainty, slowing economic growth, and limiting hiring opportunities for the approximately 13 million Americans searching for work.
(6) The law imposes 21 new or higher taxes on American families and businesses, including taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year.
(7) While President Obama promised that nothing in the law would fund elective abortion, the law expands the role of the Federal Government in funding and facilitating abortion and plans that cover abortion. The law appropriates billions of dollars in new funding without explicitly prohibiting the use of these funds for abortion, and it provides Federal subsidies for health plans covering elective abortions.
(8) By creating new barriers to health insurance and causing the loss of existing insurance arrangements, these inflexible mandates jeopardize the ability of institutions and individuals to exercise their rights of conscience and their ability to freely participate in the health insurance and health care marketplace.
(9) The law expands government control over health care, adds trillions of dollars to existing liabilities, drives costs up even further, and too often put Federal bureaucrats, instead of doctors and patients, in charge of health care decisionmaking.
(10) The path to patient-centered care and lower costs for all Americans must begin with a full repeal of the law.
The House expects to vote on the bill on Wednesday, July 11. While the text has been made available since Thursday, Republicans will meet Monday evening in order to approve a rule for the bill. This “emergency meeting” will be taking place because the bill will be officially introduced on Monday.
Though it is expected to pass overwhelmingly in the House, it is also expected to die in the Democrat controlled Senate.
