Labor & Employment Law

Petty Bickering Trumps Jobs Need as Republicans Vote to Repeal Health Care Reform

By Mike Hall

The nation is in its 20th straight month with unemployment above 9 percent. The electorate in November told lawmakers to ?focus less on petty partisan bickering and more on jobs, jobs, jobs,?says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

But in their first significant action since taking majority control of the U.S. House, Republicans chose bickering instead of jobs and threw a huge hunk of red meat to their right-wing backers today by voting (245-189) to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The action came although repeal has no chance of succeeding–the Senate will not take the measure up and President Obama has said he would not sign it.

While the health care reform law has not been fully implemented, many provisions already are helping working families obtain and afford quality health care and curbing some of the most outrageous abuses by giant health insurers.

Repeal of health care reform would cost 1.2 million young adults their coverage through their parents? health plan. It would mean higher drug prices for 2.7 million seniors, eliminating free preventive services for 44 million seniors and discarding measures to help control our health care costs. And it would allow insurance companies to resume denying coverage, limiting care and spending premiums on larger CEO salaries and profits.

(Click here, here and here to read stories from real people about how the Affordable Care Act has helped them and their families.)

Repeal also would end the subsidies small business owners now are using to provide employees with health coverage and add $230 billion to the federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

As far as the lawmakers themselves are concerned, repeal would have no impact on their taxpayer-funded comprehensive health coverage. Click here for more.

Trumka says today?s vote ?is not the change Americans voted for.?

Republicans now in charge have an obligation to live up to their campaign rhetoric instead of going for the red meat. A vote to repeal health care signals only that they are not willing to let go of old grudges in order to do the work of the people.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 19, 2011 (boomark / email).