For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 20, 2017
Contact: Robyn Shapiro, robyn.shapiro@berlinrosen.com, 202-800-7407
The Latest Republican Health Care Repeal Deal Makes a Bad Bill Even Worse
The MacArthur Amendment would take us back to the days when consumers were at the mercy of the big insurance companies
The following is a statement by Margarida Jorge and Ethan Rome, co-directors of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), in response to a new health care amendment negotiated between House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Tuesday Group co-chairman Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“The MacArthur amendment makes a bad bill even worse. This attempt to appease the Freedom Caucus and the so-called Republican moderates spells disaster for Americans’ heath care.
“The only people this amendment will help are the Members of Congress scrambling to pass any repeal bill for partisan political reasons, no matter how bad it is for their constituents. Millions will still lose their health insurance. States can still avoid critical consumer protections. Insurers can still refuse to provide basic coverage, institute annual and lifetime caps on the care they cover, and charge people with pre-existing conditions more just because they need care, effectively pricing people out of the market.
“This bill take us back to the days when we were all at the mercy of the big insurance companies and when you could lose your coverage because you got sick, be denied coverage altogether because you had a health care condition, or be forced to pay eye-popping premiums for coverage because you actually needed health care.”
Just like the bill that didn’t have enough support to pass in March, the latest GOP proposal would take health care away from 24 million people, slash Medicaid, and raise health care costs for all families in order to give $465 billion in tax cuts to the very wealthy and the big insurance and drug companies. It will blow a hole in state budgets so the wealthiest 400 Americans can get a tax break of $7 million a year. It will allow companies to charge older people five times as much as younger consumers and increase costs for people in their 50s and 60s by thousands of dollars a year.
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Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the national grassroots coalition that ran a $60 million five-and-a-half year campaign from 2008-2013 to pass, protect, and promote the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect Medicare and Medicaid. HCAN has come back together to fight the Republicans’ all-out effort to take away America’s health care and put people at the mercy of the health insurance companies again.
