The more Americans learn about the President’s Government Takeover of Health Care Law, the less they like it.  Recent polling data indicates a growing majority of Americans favor repealing the law and replacing it with sensible reforms that empower patients – not government bureaucrats.  Support for the law is at an all-time low.  In the 19 months since the law was enacted, many of the grandiose promises made by the President and Democrats in Congress have already been broken.

Broken Promises

•  If you like your current coverage, you can keep it. – President Obama, 2010
  
  For many Americans, this simply isn’t true. The health care law’s mandates make offering coverage to employees more difficult and expensive for employers – a fact recognized by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a recent CNBC interview, during which she described the law as “a way for businesses to be emancipated from health care costs because they have a way out, or whatever works for them.”
  
  McKinsey & Company, a reputable national consulting firm, recently surveyed more than 1,300 employers across industries, geographies and employer sizes, and found that 30 percent of employers will either definitely or probably stop offering employer-sponsored coverage after 2014.  Among employers with a high awareness of the health care law, the number jumps to 50 percent. 

• The law will reduce premiums by up to $2,500 per family, per year. – President Obama, 2010
  
  Premiums continue to rise, as a recent report issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation clearly shows.  Since the law was enacted, the employer-sponsored average annual family premium has increased 9 percent, from $13,770 to $15,073.  Individual market premiums have risen 8 percent, from $5,049 to $5,429.  As the New York Times has reported, other studies likewise indicate premiums will continue to rise in the wake of the President’s government takeover of health care law. 

• The law “will create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” – Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, February, 2010
  
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care law will cost the U.S. economy 800,000 jobs.  The law discourages hiring by imposing onerous regulations on businesses that employ more than 50 people and fomenting uncertainty.  Many employers, unable to estimate the economic impacts the health care law will have on their businesses, are reluctant to expand or hire new workers.  The law’s enactment stalled economic recovery and has contributed to chronic unemployment.

• The law will reduce the deficit. – President Obama, March, 2010
  
  In October, $86 billion in “deficit reduction” promised by the President was eliminated when the Administration abandoned the CLASS Act, a major provision of the health care law, after the Secretary of Health and Human Services finally admitted the program was actuarially unsound.  Like the rest of the law, the CLASS Act was poorly-conceived, built on faulty assumptions, and plagued with incurable flaws.
  
  The President still claims the law will reduce the deficit, but it is worth taking a look at the fine print.  The alleged “deficit reduction” will materialize only if taxes are hiked, Medicare Advantage cuts are implemented, physician payment rates are slashed, and employers do not heed House Minority Leader Pelosi’s advice and drop coverage en masse.  Thus, the deficit reduction claim hinges on assumptions as improbable as those used by the President and Democrats to produce the CLASS Act’s phantom savings in the first place.  Simply put – the deficit reduction claim has no merit, and Americans know it.

And a bonus, from the 2008 campaign trail:

• “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 [per] year will see any form of tax increase.” – President Obama, September, 2008
  
  The health care law requires every American – including those earning less than $250,000 – to purchase a government-approved health insurance plan or pay a penalty.  In public, the President forcefully insists this requirement is not a tax.  In court, however, the Administration sings a different tune.  Defending the law against a majority of the states and various groups challenging the mandate’s dubious constitutionality, the Administration continues to argue that the federal government has the authority to impose the mandate precisely because it is a tax.

Solutions for America

House Republicans successfully repealed President Obama's Government Takeover of Health Care Law in the House of Representatives on January 19, 2011, and remain committed to replacing it with sensible reforms that lower costs for patients and ease burdens on small businesses. For more information on House Republicans’ plan to reform America’s health care system, click here.