Cost Of ObamaCare - $1.4 TRILLION

Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) issued the following statement on the one year anniversary of Obamacare:

A year ago today, President Obama’s health care bill became law. Upon signing the bill, the President claimed his signature initiative legislation would “lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government.” He also stated that it would help “[reduce] our deficit” and that “It is paid for” and “fiscally responsible.” One year later, we have seen just the opposite. Obamacare has increased costs for families and businesses, increased the deficit and increased government control over our health care options

Unfortunately, families are bearing the brunt of increased health care costs from the President’s plan. Obamacare is full of costly mandates on insurance companies which inevitably raises the price of insurance for families in the form of higher premiums. BlueCross BlueShield and Celtic Insurance Company have attributed rate increases directly to Obamacare. Businesses are also burdened with new mandates including the $2,000 per employee tax on businesses with more than 50 employees that fail to provide health insurance. Small businesses that cannot afford to provide health coverage nor absorb the tax are likely to stop hiring. It doesn’t take an economist to know that a hiring freeze is anathema to a struggling economy.

The CBO noted in its latest estimates that the cost of the President’s health care plan has already increased by $500 billion. So, in just one year, the overall cost of this massive new entitlement has increased from a staggering $938 billion price tag to $1.445 trillion. Only in its infancy, Obamacare has added over 6,500 pages of regulations to the Federal Register that the bureaucracy is struggling to implement. In just one year, the Obama Administration has issued over 1,000 waivers to exempt entities from complying with its own law. If nothing else, these waivers are a tacit admission that the law is unworkable and needs to be repealed.

House conservatives have repeatedly voted to repeal Obamacare and have submitted their own proposals to lower health care costs by making insurance tax deductible, portable and available across state lines. We have proposed rooting out fraud and protecting doctors from frivolous lawsuits, which can all be done without bankrupting America in the process. Creating a new trillion dollar entitlement program when we are facing record debt and deficits is a prescription for economic calamity.