Just the Facts: House Republicans' Record of Attacking Health Care Benefits and Patient Protections

Issue Report
For Immediate Release:
2014-09-15T00:00:00
Contact Info:

Mariel Saez 202-225-3130

After House Republicans voted for the 53rd time to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act last week, here’s a look at how House Republicans have wasted time and taxpayer dollars on over 50 attempts to undermine or repeal the law that is already providing Americans with critical patient protections and health care benefits – rather than focusing on jobs and the economy, which they pledged to do.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTE OVER 50 TIMES TO TAKE AWAY PROTECTIONS & BENEFITS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Four nearly four years, House Republicans have voted over 50 times to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act, without offering any plan to replace the patient protections and health care benefits that the Affordable Care Act is already providing to Americans: 

“House Republicans despise Obamacare, so voting to replace it seems like an election year no-brainer. But six months into the campaign year, they’re still trying to craft an alternative. The repeal part of their “repeal and replace” promise was easy; the House has voted dozens of times to repeal or defund all or some of the law since its passage in 2010. It’s the replace part that’s a challenge. Republicans are divided over whether they should commit to a specific plan before November — and precisely what policies a GOP health bill should include.” [Politico, 7/8/14]

“On health care, Boehner said simply repealing the Affordable Care Act ‘isn’t the answer’…   ‘(To) repeal Obamacare … isn’t the answer. The answer is repeal and replace. The challenge is that Obamacare is the law of the land.’ …The GOP, however, has taken a number of votes to repeal the law, including bills that would have completely repealed the law without replacing it. The party hasn’t unified behind a replacement, let alone voted on one, since Boehner took the speaker’s gavel.” [Roll Call, 4/24/14]

“Since the House GOP leadership’s announcement of their intention to offer a replacement bill at the start of the year, Republican lawmakers have seen little evidence that it will happen before Congress breaks for the August recess.” [The Hill, 5/26/14]

MEANWHILE, MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN PARTY ARE GETTING IMPATIENT…

Even fellow House Republicans have expressed disappointment and frustration that their party hasn’t offered an alternative to the patient protections and health care benefits offered by the Affordable Care Act, rather than just taking them away:

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID): “‘I think the feeling of the majority [of] members of our conference is that you can’t be something with nothing, and we gotta have [an answer for] ‘What would you do if you were going to repeal Obamacare.’” [Politico, 7/8/14]

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA):  “‘I really believe people want to see us put something [comprehensive] on the floor and hopefully before the November elections — and I highly recommend we do it.” [Politico, 7/8/14]

Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA): “The American people can’t afford to wait any longer for Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare… The time is now to bring an Obamacare replacement bill to the House floor that lowers costs and puts patients back in charge of their health care decisions.’” [Politico, 5/29/14]  

…AS REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO IGNORE JOB CREATION AND VOTE AGAINST CRITICAL PRIORITIES

While House Republicans have voted over 50 times to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act, they have refused to take meaningful action on jobs and growing the economy. In fact, Republicans have voted against legislation to support job creation, raise the minimum wage, ensure equal pay, renew unemployment insurance for job seekers, and pass comprehensive immigration reform: 

  • Make It In America bills, including legislation thateliminates tax deductions for the moving expenses of companies that send jobs overseas and provides a new tax credit for those companies that bring jobs back to the U.S. [7/30/14,  9/18/13]
  • Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation to ensure equal pay for equal work by prohibiting sex discrimination in the payment of wages. [7/30/14, 4/8/14]
  • Emergency Unemployment Compensation, legislation to extend emergency unemployment assistance to job seekers. [1/15/14, 1/28/14, 3/6/14, 3/5/14, 4/8/14, 5/7/14]
  • Fair Minimum Wage Act, legislation to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to $10.10 an hour. [7/30/14, 4/29/14, 4/4/14, 4/2/14, 2/27/14, 2/26/14]
  • Immigration Reform, bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration system in a comprehensive way. [3/26/14, 7/31/14, twice on 8/1/14]

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ARE COMMITTED TO PROTECTING HEALTH CARE BENEFITS

While House Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it, House Democrats are committed to protecting the patient protections and health care benefits that the American people are already experiencing:

  • 129 million Americans, including 17.6 million children with pre-existing conditions cannot be discriminated against by insurers, and being a woman can no longer be considered a pre-existing condition.[HHS, 7/16/14]
  • 3.1 million young adults, who would otherwise be uninsured, have been allowed to stay on their parents’ private insurance plans until age 26.[HHS, 7/16/14]
  • Lifetime limits on 105 million Americans with private insurance have been eliminated. [HHS, 7/16/14]
  • 76 million Americans with private insurance have received free preventive care services, including 30 million women and 18 million children. [HHS, 7/16/14]
  • More than 8.2 million seniors have saved more than $11.5 billion on prescription drugs since 2010. [HHS, 7/29/14]
  • 37.2 million seniors have accessed free Medicare preventative care services, including free Medicare annual wellness visits, in 2013 alone.[HHS, 7/16/14]
  • The life of the Medicare Trust Fund has been extended by 13 years. [CMS,7/28/14]
  • 8.5 million consumers received half a billion dollars in refunds from their insurance company in 2012 thanks to a provision that ensures that insurance companies must spend 80% of premium dollars on health benefits, or must rebate consumers for the difference. [HHS, 7/16/14]
  • The growth rate in Medicare spending per enrollee was 2 percent a year on average from 2009 to 2012, only 0.1 percent in 2013, and is at or below zero so far in fiscal year 2014 – compared to 6.3 percent a year from 2000-2008. [White House Blog, 7/28/14]
  • Medicare Part B premiums will not go up for the second year in a row in 2015 – compared to premiums that skyrocketed by 112 percent between 2000 and 2008. [CMS, 7/28/14]
  • Small-group health insurance premiums for individual coverage grew by 1 percent this year, the slowest rate of growth since 2008, and family plans increased by 2 percent according to a Kaiser Family Foundation annual report. [NY Times, 9/11/14]
  • 10.3 million uninsured Americans have obtained health care coverage. [New England Journal of Medicine, 8/28/14]

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DISAGREE WITH REPUBLICANS & WANT CONGRESS TO FOCUS ON JOBS, OTHER PRIORITIES

House Democrats aren’t the only ones who want House Republicans to focus on jobs and abandon their partisan obsession with taking away patient protections and health care benefits. The majority of the American people agree:

  • 60% of Americans would “rather see [their] representative in Congress work to improve” the Affordable Care Act (including 58% of independents), compared to 35% who would have their representatives “work to repeal the law and replace it with something else.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 8/1/2014]
  • 64% of Americans support keeping the Affordable Care Act in place either in its current form or with small modifications. [Bloomberg, 3/12/14]
  • By 20 percentage points, voters rate the economy and jobs the single most important issue. [Washington Post poll, 9/9/14]
  • “Seventy-one percent of people surveyed favor a hike in the federal minimum wage,” including 54% of Republicans. [CNN Money, 6/9/14]
  • 74% of Americans support “government efforts to address male-female income disparity in the United States.” [Politico, 5/2014]
  • Over 70% of Americans – including 64% of Republicans – support comprehensive immigration reform. [Politico, 5/19/14]

HOUSE DEMOCRATS WILL CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON JOBS AND CRITICAL PRIORITIES

House Democrats are focused on the American people’s top priorities and have an agenda to grow the economy and support job creation. The Middle Class Jumpstart agenda is centered around three pillars:

  • ‘Make It In America’ – Better Jobs at Home
  • When Women Succeed, America Succeeds
  • Affordable Education to Keep America #1

And as part of the Middle Class Jumpstart agenda, House Democrats continue to promote the Make It In America jobs plan, which includes four core components:

  • Adopt and pursue a national manufacturing strategy
  • Promote the export of U.S. goods
  • Encourage businesses to bring jobs and innovation back to the U.S.
  • Train and secure a twenty-first century workforce

Rather than take away health care benefits and put insurance companies back in control, the American people need and deserve a Congress that will address their priorities. Democrats stand ready to get to work so that we can jump start the middle class and ensure they can make it in America.

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