MDP Executive Director Challenges GOP Lawmakers to Give Up Taxpayer Funded Health Care

Helena, Mont.-- Ted Dick, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, released the following statement on the GOP attempts to dismantle the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, which improves health insurance for every Montanan, and provides thousands of previously uninsured in Montana with the ability to get coverage:

"If the GOP wants to get rid of insurance for thousands of Montanans, then they should lead by example and give up their state-paid health insurance. After all, Montanans shouldn't have to hold elected office in order to receive health care.

Repealing health care reform immediately adds a quarter of a trillion dollars to the national deficit, denies health insurance to 32 million Americans, and takes away $450 billion dollars in tax breaks to businesses to help them offer health insurance to their employees. That's not progress, that's taking huge steps backwards.

While they will continue to enjoy health insurance paid for by the taxpayers, the GOP lawmakers will work to undo the protections that have been put in place for Montanans. They'll vote to reopen the medicare donut hole, which will make it harder for seniors to purchase their prescriptions. They'll try to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions, even children. And they'll allow insurance companies to once again drop coverage when a person needs it most. They should be ashamed."

 
Republican legislators have introduced several bills that attempt to repeal the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, which does the following:

• Prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
• Stops the rescission process, which allows insurance companies to drop coverage when people need it most, because of a simple mistake on their application.
• Allows children to stay on their parents insurance plan until they are 26.
• Eliminates lifetime caps on insurance coverage, which means insurance companies can't drop coverage when a person gets seriously ill.
• Provides more than $40 billion in tax cuts to more than 26,000 Montana small businesses, to allow them to purchase insurance for their employees.
• Provides consumers with greater transparency on rate increases on their policy.
• Closes the Medicare "donut hole."
• Provides free preventative services, such as mammograms, colonoscopies and flu shots.
• Requires health insurance companies use their premiums for services and not for multi-million dollar bonuses.
• Reduces the federal deficit by a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next ten years, and an additional trillion in the following decade.