This week, Republicans are pressing legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a move that would eliminate health benefits for young people, seniors, and small businesses, hinder job growth, and add $230 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years. In the time since our previous blog, national cable news networks and newspaper editorial boards have been denouncing Republicans’ repeal bill, with even more newspaper editorials have been published echoing those repudiations.
Quoting NFTOS readers: “The Republicans' "repeal and replace" plan looks more perilous for them than it seemed just a few months ago. The tide seems to be turning on Americans' feelings about the overhaul”
“Returning to a system that is too expensive and filled with incentives to drive up costs even further is the riskiest health care strategy of all”
With the House poised to vote today on Republican-sponsored legislation to repeal health care reform, it's crucial to dispel the myths from the facts.
The historic Affordable Care Act expands access to health care for 32 million people while reducing the deficit and helping to create jobs. With so many false claims online and in the news, never before has it been so important to know the truth – here’s a look at myths and facts surrounding the Affordable Care Act’s impact on the economy and deficit.
Myth: Repealing health reform would reduce the deficit.
Fact: Congressional Budget Office analysis estimates that the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” would “increase federal budget deficits over the 2012–2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion,” $230 billion in by 2021, and increase the deficit in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars beyond the 10-year window.
Myth: Health reform will lead to tax increases for families and small businesses
Fact: Not true. The Affordable Care Act includes tax credits to help make health care affordable for working families. All told, the Affordable Care Act represents the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in American history.
Myth: The Affordable Care Act increases the cost of health care for small businesses.
Fact: Small businesses will receive $40 billion in new tax credits to help cover the cost of health coverage for their employees. The tax credit is designed to both support those small businesses that provide coverage today as well as new businesses who decide to provide coverage. Effective immediately, the tax credit is worth up to 35 percent of the premiums a business pays to cover its workers and in 2014, the value of the credit will increase to 50 percent. An estimated 4 million small businesses will be eligible to receive these tax credits.
Myth: Health reform kills jobs, and repealing reform would save jobs.
Fact: Harvard economist David Cutler argues in new paper that repealing the health law would reverse months of private-sector growth and could destroy 250,000 to 400,000 jobs annually over the next decade. Eliminating the law would increase health care costs, causing employers to reduce wages or eliminate jobs.
Myth: This bill does nothing to bring down the cost of health care.
Fact: Not true. The health policy experts and economists who have looked at this legislation have said we are pursuing every possible mechanism to reduce health care costs. The Congressional Budget Office found that health insurance reform will reduce the deficit by over $100 billion in this decade and by more than $1 trillion over the following 10 years.
The below video depicts how clueless those from right of center are.
If the video is any indication, we can now understand why the plethora of convoluted wrongs and misunderstanding exists with regards to Obama Care.
NFTOS has also said all along that if the republicans plan to repeal the bill then should be required to forgo government-sponsored health insurance for themselves. Period!
Its well known that republicans are known as the hypocritical society. To date, in sum, only eight GOP congressman, or three percent of all House Republicans, have opted out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. One Republican loudly complained about having his own government-sponsored health insurance delayed approximately four weeks. But most GOPers have quietly continued to accept government-sponsored health care while loudly decrying the government’s role in helping provide health care to a segment of the American public.
While we at NFTOS are not surprised, constituents of these congress folk should be jamming the phones lines and email pipelines asking for these hypocrites to back the bill, and if they can't do that, then do not accept the sponsored health care.
On average, congressmen receive $700 per month in taxpayer subsidies to help pay for their health insurance. Members use these subsidies to choose a health insurance plan available through a government-sponsored exchange which, among other regulations, bars discrimination based on preexisting conditions.
“The federal system mirrors the reforms enacted by Democrats and President Obama, which end health insurance abuses by regulating coverage through an exchange, while offering subsidies to individuals and small businesses to make coverage more affordable.”
The video below provides you with proof that republicans want their cake and to be able to eat it too.
This position by the republicans is both despicable and disgusting. Hypocrisy is not a trait we look for in our politicians, but it is the backbone and fiber of the extreme radical republican.
NFTOS
