Politics in Action: H.R. 6079

STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY

H.R. 6079 – Repealing the Affordable Care Act
(Rep. Cantor, R-VA)

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 6079 because it would cost millions of hard-working middle class families the security of affordable health coverage and care they deserve.  It would increase the deficit and detract from the work the Congress needs to do to focus on the economy and create jobs. 

Repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean that marketplaces where Americans could compare private insurance plans and get tax credits to purchase them would not open.  Tax credits for small business owners who cover their employees would be eliminated.  States would lose substantial Federal assistance under Medicaid to provide coverage for the neediest Americans. 

But repealing the health care law would have implications far beyond the estimated 30 million Americans without insurance who would lose the health coverage they were going to receive. 

More than 250 million Americans with insurance – private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid – would lose the benefits and protections they receive under the health care law.  Insurance companies would be able to go back to some of their worst practices.  They would no longer have to cover as dependents the 6.6 million young adults who have been able to sign up on their parents' plans.  They would be able to impose lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on coverage.  They could go back to denying coverage to children with preexisting conditions.  And, they would likely turn away the nearly 70,000 Americans who had gained insurance through Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans, which would have to shut down.  Insurance companies would no longer be held accountable for double-digit premium increases.  Strict rules that prevent insurance companies from spending too much on administrative costs or CEO bonuses would be erased.

Reforms that strengthen Medicare's long-term finances would also be repealed.  Seniors would lose the more generous prescription drug coverage provided under the health care law, as well as free preventive care.  And Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund would become insolvent up to eight years earlier.

Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that repealing the health care law would add more than $100 billion to the deficit over the next decade, and more than $1 trillion in the following decade.

The last thing the Congress should do is refight old political battles and take a massive step backward by repealing basic protections that provide security for the middle class.  Right now, the Congress needs to work together to focus on the economy and creating jobs.  Congress should act on the President's concrete plans to create an economy built to last by reducing the deficit in a balanced way and investing in education, clean energy, innovation, and infrastructure.

If the President were presented with H.R. 6079, he would veto it.