Some of the minority groups that championed Obamacare are among those the bill would most negatively affect, according to a group of congressional Republicans speaking Tuesday in a conference call marking the third anniversary of the health care law’s passage.
When the Supreme Court declared President Barack Obama’s health care law constitutional in June 2012, a USA Today/Gallup survey revealed that women, minorities, singles and young adults were some of the most supportive of the decision.
In the conference call, which was hosted by the grassroots group FreedomWorks, Republican Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey said young people in particular may not fully understand Obamacare’s implications.
“Millenials like the idea of being able to stay on their parents’ insurance policy until age 26,” Gingrey said. “Even if they were not in post-graduate school, they would have that opportunity. And possibly that’s the reason many of them voted for President Obama and voted to re-elect him.”
“More than 5 million Americans in their twenties are presently without health insurance,” he continued. “So, rather than addressing this problem, President Obama’s health care law actually exacerbates it, and at the end of next yea, young Americans will see a dramatic spike in health care costs, due to age band restrictions place on insurance providers.”
The legislators also criticized the 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which they said is a rationing panel that will function much like the rationing board for the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain.
“It’s not just rationing end-of-life care, although it might,” Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris said. “It rations care at every level, at every age and to everyone who’s involved with a medical procedure done in a hospital or by a physician. … It is rationing in a much broader sense, but I have no problem calling it a rationing panel.”
The conference call allowed members of the GOP Doctors Caucus the opportunity to advocate patient-centered health care reform.
The Doctors Caucus, which formed in 2009 during the debate over Obamacare, is composed of 21 medical providers working in Congress who advocate the development of patient-centered health care reforms.
Last week, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed his party’s plan to repeal the bill. (RELATED: Republicans send letter to Obama outlining plan to fight Obamacare)
“Next week marks the third anniversary of Obamacare,” McConnell said March 11 on the Senate floor. “And I’ll remind you that leading up to its passage in March 2010, Republicans warned endlessly that the bill would cost too much, and wouldn’t work the way the president and other Washington Democrats said it would. … It looks like our worst fears are coming true.”