by L.B. Woodgate

Created on: January 06, 2011   Last Updated: January 08, 2011

Why do Republicans hate our newly gained health care freedoms and can we really rely on the new GOP House to repeal the Affordable Care Act and still provide needed new healthcare reform that cuts costs for consumers?

For the Party that just regained the House in Congress this last election based on their messaging that Obama and the Democrats were “taking our liberties” from us, the new House speaker, John Boehner, has vowed to remove the new freedoms we recently gained with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed last year.  In their efforts to repeal the bill, the new GOP leadership is rushing a vote on this scheduled for January 12th and will restrict debate on it, a tactic many of them hollered foul at towards Democrats just last year when they were in the minority.

Shortly after the victories came for the House Republicans last November, Boehner told reporters he believed “that the healthcare bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best healthcare system in the world, and bankrupt our country.  That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.” 

WHAT WILL CHANGE?

What is in this bill that kills jobs, ruins the best healthcare system in the world (that many Americans are unable to afford anyway) and threatens a financial holocaust on our economic system?  And what, after nearly 60 years of efforts blocked by Republicans to implement health care reform, will the new Congress do different to correct this? Conservative Democrats and some Progressives who crafted the ACA claim that if this bill is repealed, we could return to a failed health care system: “one with skyrocketing costs bankrupting families and our budget, fewer people with access to quality care, and more people at the mercy of the health insurance industry.” (“How Conservative attacks on health reform will hurt you”, by Tony Clark, 1/5/11)

Health care costs and the bills impact on the national deficit seem to be the prevailing concern of many on both sides of the issue.  The GOP claims the package deal will raise the national debt but provides no data to support exact figures.  Conversely they offer no information on what the taxpayer is already paying in out-of-pocket expense as an individual.  Could private industry costs exceed those realized

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