House Republican Effort to "Defund" the Affordable Care Act Would Hurt Many Millions of People and Reflects an Arrogant Double Standard

Congress Keeps Substantial Health Coverage Benefits, While Families, Children, Young Adults, Seniors, Women, and Small Businesses Would Lose Them

The Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives has been searching throughout the day for the right legislative mechanism to strip funding from implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Although this legislative effort remained unfocused at midday, Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, issued the following statement on the proposed so-called “defunding” of the law:

“Efforts by House Republicans to 'defund' the Affordable Care Act—to eliminate from the budget the funding needed to implement the new health reform law—would hurt many millions of people and is contrary to the wishes of the American people.

“Surveys and polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act and oppose this back-door effort to block its implementation.

“Repealing the Affordable Care Act would take away key benefits that are already helping millions of Americans. It would mean that:

• Insurance companies could once again arbitrarily deny health coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
  
  
• Small businesses would lose the tax credits they are now receiving that allow them to provide affordable health coverage for their employees.
  
  
• Young adults just starting their careers would no longer be able to retain health coverage through their parents’ policies.
  
  
• Seniors with large prescription drug costs would lose the 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs they are now receiving.
  
  
• Medicare beneficiaries would again face deductibles or copayments for services like mammograms, prostate screenings, colorectal cancer screenings, or bone mass measurements.
  
  
• Medicare beneficiaries would lose their free annual checkups and personal health evaluations from their doctors.
  
  
• People with major, costly illnesses would once again face large debts or bankruptcy when lifetime limits on their insurance benefits are re-established.
  
  
• People would lose new rights to contest denials of medical services and unfair rescissions of their coverage by insurance companies.
  
  
• Many community health centers would close or limit their caseloads as Affordable Care Act support to these centers is withdrawn.

“The House Republicans who are pushing for repeal through defunding are guilty of a terrible double standard: they are retaining for themselves the very benefits and rights they plan to take away from America’s families. In so doing, they are giving ‘hypocrisy’ a bad name.”

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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