DeLauro: Health Care Repeal Will Not Happen

Speaks to local seniors about benefits of bill, dangers of repeal

New Haven, CT— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) visited the Milford Senior Center today and spoke about the benefits the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act includes for Americans, particularly seniors. The Congresswoman also addressed Republican efforts to repeal the new health care law.

The Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act puts patients and their doctors back in charge of their health care, not insurance companies. The new law has expanded health benefits to millions of Americans, and is especially critical for our nation’s seniors. The new health reform law has expanded access to preventive care, guaranteed a 50 percent discount on brand-name medications and a $250 credit to seniors who reach the Medicare ‘donut hole’ coverage gap for prescription drugs, and extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund. For the more than 540,000 seniors in Connecticut have Medicare coverage, these benefits are critical.

If the law was repealed, all of these benefits would be taken away, leaving millions of Americans without the care they need. Repeal would also cause increased medical spending, higher insurance premiums, and the loss of between 250,000 to 400,000 jobs a year for the next 10 years.

“The Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act gives Americans the freedom to make their own health care decisions. It helps people of all ages, from young children, to college students, to parents and grandparents, at a critical time. It is especially supportive of our seniors, enabling free preventive care and making health care and medications more affordable,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “And yet, the Republican Congress has made repealing this law its first priority. Repealing health care will take away the freedom to make your own health care decisions and give power back to insurance companies, destroy jobs, cause premiums to rise, and add billions to the deficit. We should be working to further strengthen Medicare and our health care system, not cutting up the progress we have already made. And that is what I will fight in this Congress, every single day, to do.”