Republican Health Proposal Raises Taxes and Cuts Benefits for America’s Families

The Repeal Proposal Would Hurt Seniors, Children, Young Adults, Middle-Class Families, Women, People with Chronic Health Problems, and Small Businesses

As part of its 2010 political campaign, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives announced their plan for governing if they attain a majority. Included in the plan is a proposal to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health reform legislation adopted in March 2010. The following is the reaction of Ron Pollack, Executive Director of the consumer health organization Families USA, about this proposal:

“The Republican health reform repeal proposal is a damaging development. Its leaders’ actions now change from obstruction to destruction—destruction of tax breaks middle-class families and small businesses need to afford health care, destruction of key consumer protections against abusive insurance industry practices, and destruction of important benefits for America’s seniors.

“The destruction caused by this proposal would harmfully affect people from all age groups, and it would take a big bite out of families’ pocketbooks:

• It would harm middle-class families by taking away the large, new tax breaks they are expected to receive to make health coverage more affordable;
• It would harm small business owners and their workers by eliminating an important tax credit designed to make employer-sponsored health coverage more affordable;
• It would harm seniors in at least three ways: Seniors would lose the ability to obtain preventive care for free; they would be forced to pay huge out-of-pocket costs if they need multiple medicines; and steps to promote home- and community-based care services, as an alternative to nursing homes for chronically ill seniors, would be eliminated;
• It would harm children by eliminating the guarantee that they can secure health insurance coverage if they have a pre-existing condition;
• It would harm young adults who would lose the right to stay on their parents’ insurance policy until their 26th birthday;
• It would harm people with pre-existing conditions by eliminating insurance companies’ obligations to make health insurance available at a fair, non-discriminatory price;
• It would harm women by undoing the new rule that prevent insurers from charging higher premiums based exclusively on gender and by taking away their right to see an obstetrician-gynecologist without prior approval from their insurance company; and
• It would hurt all consumers in a number of ways, including: eliminating their right to an independent hearing when their insurance company denies their claims; reversing the ban on unfair cancellation of insurance policies; taking away their right to have most premium dollars spent on health care rather than insurance company overhead and profits; and stopping insurance companies from denying payments due to lifetime coverage caps.

“Astoundingly, even after taking away all these tax breaks, new benefits, and protections, the repeal proposal would also result in much larger federal budget deficits. Repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would increase the federal deficit by many billions of dollars. We know that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Affordable Care Act would reduce the deficit by $143 billion.

“As a result, the repeal proposal is penny unwise and pound foolish. We urge Republican leaders to re-consider their repeal proposal.” 

###

Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org