STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
H.R. 3762 – Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015
(Rep. Price, R-GA)
The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 3762. The House now has attempted to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times. By repealing numerous key elements of current law, H.R. 3762 would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hard-working middle-class families. The bill also would remove policies that are expected to help slow the growth in health care costs and that have improved the quality of care patients receive. H.R. 3762 would increase the deficit in the long term and detract from the work the Congress could be doing to foster job creation and economic growth.
The Affordable Care Act is working and is fully integrated into an improved American health care system. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the past. And under the Affordable Care Act, we’ve seen the slowest growth in health care prices in nearly 50 years, benefiting all Americans.
Repealing key elements of the Affordable Care Act would result in millions of individuals remaining uninsured or losing the insurance they have today. An estimated 17.6 million Americans gained coverage as several of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions have taken effect – 15.3 million since the beginning of the first open enrollment in October 2013. This legislation would roll back coverage gains and would cost millions of hard‑working middle-class families the security of affordable health coverage they deserve.
Repealing the health care law would have implications far beyond these Americans who have or will gain insurance. More than 150 million Americans with employer-based insurance would be at risk of higher premiums and lower wages, or losing their coverage altogether. Reforms that strengthen Medicare’s long‑term finances also would be repealed, likely making Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund insolvent earlier. H.R. 3762 also would defund the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was created to help prevent disease, detect it early, and manage conditions before they become severe; limit women’s health care choices; and disproportionately impact low-income individuals.
Rather than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, Members of the Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle-class families, and create new jobs.
If the President were presented with H.R. 3762, he would veto the bill.
