Instead of fixing the economy their own party destroyed, Congressional Republicans are wasting limited agenda time and scarce public money pretending to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The posturing begins with the name of their bill, the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” As Dean Baker puts it, “Republicans call Obama policies ‘Job Killers’ because the media might ask for evidence if they called them ‘Baby Killers.'”
Not that evidence matters to Republicans, but the facts contradict the “Job-Killing” claim. The Congressional Research Service says the implemented law “would not be a burden on small business owners.” The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing the health reform law would add $230 billion to the Federal deficit and cost 23 million Americans their health insurance, bringing the total of uninsured to 54 million in 2019.
It’s not just independent government agencies that think repealing healthcare reform is unwise. Harvard’s Amitabh Chandra says “the effect on employment is probably zero or close to it,” and Augustine Faucher of Moody’s Analytics says the law’s deficit savings should “bring down interest rates and free up more capital for private firm investment,” creating more jobs, reports David Lightman. And the Wall Street Journal reports:
“At the National Business Group on Health, a collection of nearly 300 big employers, President Helen Darling, a former corporate-benefit administrator and Republican Senate staffer, says about executives who call for repeal: ‘If they really understood it, they wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t think we’ll get a better solution in the U.S. in our lifetime’ she said. ‘If it gets repealed, or gutted, we’ll have to start over and we’ll be worse off.’”
Whether the law stays or goes doesn’t really matter to members of Congress. Either way, their insurance is cheaper and better than yours.
UPDATE: Another health reform law advocate heard from — Dr. William Harrison “Bill” Frist, Republican physician and former House Majority Leader (2004 — 2007).
“Frist: Don’t repeal health care bill,” Ed Hornick, CNN.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: GOP, health care, health care reform, health insurance, Healthcare, HR 2, Job-Killing, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, repeal, Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act, Republicans
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