January 19, 2011 -- The National Health Law Program (NHeLP) stands together with millions of health care consumers in opposition to the House of Representatives’ passage of H.R. 2, the bill to repeal health care reform. The repeal of health reform would lead to massive increases in the national deficit, potential increases in health care premiums and unemployment, and most importantly, decreased access to vital health care for millions of Americans.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) scoring of the health reform repeal bill shows, unequivocally, that it would increase the national deficit by $230 billion over the next decade. Furthermore, the CBO finds that on average, repeal of health reform would more likely increase average health insurance premiums. Despite what the politicians say, the health reform law is not a “job killer,” as the effect of repealing health reform on employment would be negligible, and possibly egative.
Fact: Repealing health reform does not increase health care costs or save jobs, and the economic costs for our country are catastrophic.
Worst of all, repealing health reform would have tragic human costs. To name just a few:
- 32 million people would lose health coverage. This means more people dying from preventable conditions, more people living in pain and suffering, and more uncompensated care costs bankrupting local health systems.
- More uninsured Americans. The ranks of the uninsured – which have ballooned to over 50 million Americans – will continue to grow.
- People who don’t lose their health insurance would see their premiums increase at an even faster pace. Everyone would pay more for less health care.
- Insurers would be permitted to use pre-existing condition exclusions to prevent sick people from getting coverage. They would also be allowed to rescind policies after people get sick and could charge women more for coverage.
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