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Moving in the Right Direction

Promoting Americans' Health Care Priorities

The House will vote today on a bill to dismantle ObamaCare, continuing an effort to roll back the flawed health care law that is wreaking havoc on working families, small business owners, and students. Rather than help Americans receive the care they want and need, ObamaCare has led to:
 
  • Higher costs for consumers and small businesses. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the average price of premiums under ObamaCare will rise by an average of 12.56% nationally this year. Additionally, a recent survey from the National Small Business Association found that 90 percent of small businesses will see health-care costs rise during the next enrollment period.
     
  • Less access to trusted health care providers. To control costs, insurance plans on health care exchanges are estimated to have 34 percent fewer providers than non-exchange plans, including 32 percent fewer primary doctors and 42 percent fewer oncologists and cardiologists. Millions of individuals have also received notices that their insurance plans were cancelled because they did not comply with ObamaCare’s rigid mandates.
     
  • Fewer full-time jobs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will result in two million fewer full-time jobs by 2025. For years, employers have raised concerns that the law’s burdensome mandates would leave them no choice but to cut hours or delay hiring.
     
  • Financial hardships for schools, colleges, and universities. Onerous mandates have caused many education leaders to focus resources on compliance with the law instead of classroom learning. When a school district in Tennessee considered closing the doors of its schools, one official called ObamaCare “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
     

That’s why Congress is taking action and preparing to send President Obama the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act (H.R. 3762), a bill that includes provisions to:
 

  • Repeal the tax penalty imposed on individuals who fail to purchase government-approved health insurance;
     
  • Repeal the tax penalty imposed on small businesses and schools that fail to provide, costly government-approved health insurance;
     
  • Eliminate onerous and arbitrary limits on personal health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts; and
     
  • Remove punitive taxes on medical devices and prescription drugs.
     

As Republican leaders have explained:
 

  • Employers, working families, teachers, and students are paying the price for the president’s government takeover of health care. We have a responsibility to use every tool we have to dismantle this flawed health care scheme, and the bill before us today will do just that. – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN)
     
  • This bill effectively repeals the mandates and taxes at the heart of [ObamaCare]. This will be the first ObamaCare repeal bill that Congress sends to President Obama since the law’s enactment in 2010. This, of course, is a critical step in replacing this law with a patient-centered plan as a part of a bold, pro-growth agenda … We owe it to the country to take our best shot at repealing ObamaCare, and that’s what we will do.House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)
     
  • We were sent to Congress to fight for the American people. They do not want their healthcare dictated to them by Washington … We have taken many votes to preserve health care choices and protect precious tax dollars in the House. If the president didn't hear the people's voices earlier, hopefully, he will through this bill.Weekly Republican Address, delivered by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)
     

Congress is doing its part to protect the interests and priorities of the American people. The Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act is an opportunity for President Obama to do the same.

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