Washington D.C. – Today, Neera Tanden, Chief Operating Officer at the Center for American Progress and Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress released the following statement in response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act:
For years, conservatives have viciously attacked the Affordable Care Act and claimed that they would replace it with a better alternative. Today Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, once again articulated what that alternative is: a radical scheme to undermine employer-based health care, which nearly 170 million people rely on. It would also result in a large tax increase on the middle class who would no longer benefit from the employer-based health insurance tax credit and subject millions of Americans to the Wild West individual insurance market where consumers today suffer at the whim of insurance company abuses. And because the tax credit offered by Rep. Ryan is too small to make health insurance affordable, millions of Americans will remain uninsured.
This is not new policy, but a recycled version of the McCain plan, which was rejected by voters in the 2008 presidential election. And just as people rejected Rep. Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as we know it through vouchers, they’ll reject his plan to end employer-sponsored coverage through vouchers. What Rep. Ryan describes as courage, we would describe as cruelty: His plan would force many Americans to lose coverage, and for those who keep it, much of it would be poorer quality.
To speak with CAP experts on the issue, please contact Katie Peters at [email protected] or 202.741.6285.
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