House Republicans are foolishly about to try to repeal Obamacare for the 61st time.
The Hill reported that this pointless exercise in futility is coming from Rep. Paul Ryan’s Ways and Means Committee, “The measure would repeal ObamaCare’s individual and employer mandates for obtaining and providing insurance, along with two major taxes used to pay for the health care law: A 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans, called the “Cadillac Tax,” and a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices.”
According to Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee here are a few of the achievements that Republicans are looking to roll back by repealing Obamacare:
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– 17.6 million uninsured Americans have gained health insurance coverage since enactment of the Affordable Care Act.
– The rate of uninsured has dropped to historic lows – currently just 11.4%.
– As of March 31, 2015, 10.2 million consumers had coverage in Health Insurance Marketplace plans.
– 50,000 lives have been saved due to a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions, such as infections
– The private sector has added 13 million jobs.
– Americans have saved $9 billion since 2011, because of the new requirement that insurers have to spend at least 80% of every premium dollar they receive on quality health care.
– $19.2 billion has been recovered for taxpayers from stepped-up anti-fraud efforts in Medicare and other health programs under the ACA.
House Republicans are returning to repealing Obamacare because they can’t agree with each other on passing anything. The 61st attempt to repeal the ACA will end up the same way that the other 60 attempts did.
Since Republicans are using the reconciliation process to pass the repeal, the bill will get to President Obama’s desk. However, the President will promptly veto the bill, and Republicans will have once again accomplished nothing.
The American people should get used to this sort of behavior because it is going to happen even more in the post-Boehner House. Mitch McConnell is already using the tactic of bringing up defeated bills for votes repeatedly, and the extremist Republicans in the House believe that if they keep passing Obamacare repeal bills eventually the President will sign one of them.
Of course, this is never going to happen, but their belief that it might is one of the reasons why Republicans have turned Congress into a joke.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
