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Who Needs a Public Hearing? House Republicans Rush to Take Away Health Care Coverage From Millions

Who Needs a Public Hearing? House Republicans Rush to Take Away Health Care Coverage From Millions

Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen

Note: The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee voted today to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The repeal legislation was publicly unveiled only on Monday. The vote came without a public hearing or Congressional Budget Office analysis. Such a rushed vote on legislation of this magnitude is unprecedented.

House Republicans are rushing through their plan to take away health insurance from millions of Americans without pausing even for an analysis of the bill’s costs or impact on health care coverage. The reasons are plain enough: Driven by partisan extremism, blind ideology and an almost genetic predisposition to cut taxes on the rich and big corporations, they don’t care about the impact of their vote on everyday Americans.

They do, however, care about their electoral prospects, which makes it entirely possible that their plan – to roll back health insurance coverage, increase insurance rates and impose new penalties on those whose coverage temporarily lapses – will collapse.

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