DeLauro Praises Affordable Care Act, Job Creation, Role of Community Health Centers

1.5 million private-sector jobs added since Affordable Care Act was signed into law last year

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) co-chaired a hearing of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee today about the Affordable Care Act, which has created jobs, lowered health care costs, and improved access to care for millions of Americans. Below are the Congresswoman’s opening remarks.

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you. It is my privilege to welcome you to today’s hearing. I want to thank my co-chair, Congressman Miller, for his leadership, and our distinguished panel for joining us today.

This past week marked the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health care reform law that is already working to cut health care costs, improve coverage, reduce the deficit, and create jobs.

The majority tries to repeal or defund this Act and refuses all offers to work together to improve it. With so much uncertain in the economy, we should not roll back the 1.5 million private sector jobs that have been created since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, including 243,000 in the health care industry. One of the many ways the Affordable Care Act works to create jobs is by investing in our nationwide network of community health centers. They have always enjoyed strong bi-partisan support at the federal level and in state after state. These centers, or CHCs, serve approximately 23 million patients across America in 8,000 locations. In my home state of Connecticut, CHCs, including more than thirty in my district, serve over 200,000 patients a year.

CHCs do a lot of good. They are a primary source of health care for millions of Americans, and particularly for women and children. And they save us an average of $1263 per patient per year in health care costs, thus helping to reduce the deficit. But today I want to focus on one key and underappreciated benefit from CHCs: They are engines of job creation, especially in rural and low-income communities.

In 2009 alone, CHCs hired 10,000 new staff directly, and provided employment opportunities for over 123,000 others. They did this by injecting over $11 billion directly into local economies and helping to create jobs through the multiplier effect.

In fact, for every dollar invested in CHCs, two dollars in economic activity is generated. So we are doubling our money -- This is as sound an economic investment as you can make. That is why we included $2 billion in the Recovery Act in 2009 for grants to community health centers. And it is why we worked very hard to strengthen and expand our CHC system in the health care law.

These hundreds of thousands of jobs are a direct consequence of our investments in our community health care system. But the opposite holds true as well – If we roll back these investments, we will lose thousands of jobs, and not just health care jobs.

According to a report by the Center for American Progress, the Republican attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act, and the investments it makes in community health care centers, would cost America 300,000 jobs between now and 2015. When you add in the reckless $1.3 billion cut to CHCs they have included in their budget resolution, 178,000 more jobs are lost this year alone.

Obviously, this would prove disastrous for towns and cities across the nation. In this economy, the American people want to do everything we can to create and retain good, well-paying jobs right now. This attempt to defund the health care law is just one more example of how the majority is putting ideology first, regardless of the consequences for jobs, the economy, or American families.

Community health centers bring much-needed health care to millions of American families. They help to reduce the deficit by keeping health care costs down. And, yes, they help to revitalize our economy by spurring the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, all across America.

We should be expanding our investments in CHCs right now. Rolling them back is reckless. This is the right moment to affirm our support for affordable health care. Thank you.