DeLauro Opposes Latest Attempt to Undermine Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) released the following statement today opposing the latest attempt by Republicans in the House of Representatives to undermine the Affordable Care Act. DeLauro’s remarks on the House floor can be viewed here.

“Since this Republican Majority took office we have taken vote after vote after vote intended to disrupt, delay, defund, or outright repeal the Affordable Care Act. Last month, the House Majority shut down the entire federal government, and threatened a catastrophic debt default, in order to gut this law. Now when the Affordable Care Act is going into effect are we supposed to believe the Republican Majority is putting forth a good faith effort to improve the law? It does not wash and it defies imagination

“This bill is designed to weaken the health care law, and to roll the clock back on all the needed reforms we worked so hard to pass. This legislation would take us back to the unacceptable state of our health care system before we passed the Affordable Care Act. The health care system was failing people, with costs skyrocketing and people priced out of the market. People with pre-existing conditions were left on their own and every year more people had no insurance whatsoever.

“This bill would allow insurers to continue providing substandard health insurance plans to American families indefinitely, even to new customers. Americans on these plans could be denied access to preventive services with no out of pocket costs. It would take us back to a time when people were not guaranteed coverage for maternity, neonatal, or pediatric care, or for hospitalizations. It would take us back to a time when families faced annual and lifetime caps. This bill would take us back to a health insurance market that rejects people with pre-existing conditions and charges sicker or older people and women far higher premiums than healthier, younger people or men, or left on their own.

“Once again, the Majority is trying to put insurers back in the driver’s seat, letting them control the health of American families. This Majority was never interested in reforming our broken health care system and they have never been interested in making these historic reforms work better now. This is a cynical, transparently political bill.”