Ohio's Conservative Representatives vote for repeal that would strip health care benefits and consumer protections from millions of Americans
"Today's vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act demonstrates once again that conservatives in Congress care more about partisan political games than solving problems for the middle class. Representative Boehner and the other extremists have now voted 31 times to repeal a law that the Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional and that already provides benefits and consumer protections to thousands of Ohioans," said Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director, ProgressOhio.
"Ohio's 13 most conservative representatives have voted repeatedly to strip these folks of their health care by supporting repeal and by voting this year for the Romney-Ryan budget that ends Medicare as we know it and dismantles Medicaid in order to give millionaires an annual tax break," Rothenberg stated.
Repealing the ACA would unequivocally hurt Ohioans, many of whom already rely on Obamacare for benefits. Repealing the law would:
- Take away health insurance from 97,000 young adults who are now covered under the law's provision that allows young adults to remain on a parent's policy until age 26.
- Increase costs for seniors in Medicare by taking away prescription drug rebates that have already benefited 148,238 seniors and by forcing 1,203,274 more seniors who have already gotten free preventive care in Medicare to pay for their cancer screenings and annual exams.
- Rob 143,327 Ohioans of rebates totaling $11,331,726 that insurance companies will pay for the first time this year for failing to comply with the 80/20 rule. That averages to rebates of $139 for the 81,500 Ohio families covered by a policy. That Affordable Care Act rule requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of our premium dollars on actual medical care instead of overhead and profit.
- Give back to the insurance companies the power to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, to impose arbitrary caps and limits on coverage and to deny claims for any reason.
"It's time for conservatives to stop wasting time on partisan political games," said Rothenberg. "Congress should stop trying to drag our country backwards and trying to take away our health care benefits. Ohio's delegation should move on and get to work on fixing the economy and creating jobs for the American people."
